Shadow Dragon
by Plantress
Summary: Seto Kaiba has never believed in magic or dark forces even though he has experianced them both, but when the seal that has kept his own powers in check is broken he will be forced to change his mind and confront his destiny as a Harmonixer. YugiohShadow H
1. ReAwakening

Disclaimer: I do not own Yu-Gi-Oh or Shadow Hearts at all, so don't sue me. I do however own the plot line and original characters in my story so don't steal!

**Shadow Dragon**

_Chapter One: (Re)Awakening_

At the top of the Kaiba Corp building was a lone office that was devoted solely to the owner of the company, Seto Kaiba. All workers knew that unless it was an emergency they were not to violate the sanctuary of the temperamental young man, no matter what. That was why when they sound of something crashing down and a host of curses echoed through the air no one investigated. Well that and this wasn't the first time something like that had happened. Mr. Kaiba tended to get annoyed very easily.

Meanwhile in the office, said person was pacing irritable as he glared alternatively at the cell phone in his hand and the computer on his desk. One of the housekeepers had just called and informed him that Mokuba had failed to return home after school. Normally this wouldn't have been a concern since the younger Kaiba brother occasionally stayed after school or went somewhere else when his classes were over but he always called his older brother to tell him about his plans. Add to that the fact that Mokuba wasn't answering his cell phone and the GPS installed in it wasn't getting a signal, and Seto Kaiba had a fairly good idea what was going on. _Bastards! They better not have hurt him! If they have…. _The thoughts that flew through the young millionaires' head weren't pleasant. At least not to the unknown kidnappers.

Seto Kaiba had known when he changed Kaiba Corps from a weapons manufacturer to a game company that he would make enemies. How could he not? So many people had lost their jobs and livelihoods, not to mention the various companies who had relied on Kaiba Corp that suddenly went under when he changed production. He had been prepared for his enemies, he had expected them to come after them. But they hadn't, they had chosen to go after Mokuba. _Cowardly bastards, they always go after him. Mokuba had nothing to do with this! If they want revenge so badly they should just come after me instead! _But in reality Seto knew that Mokuba had everything to do with it, simply because he bore the Kaiba name. Before he could complete is train of though however his cellphone rang. He answered it almost immediately.

"Kaiba here." The reply was short, and Seto hoped feverously that if it wasn't Mokuba, whoever it was would realize that he was in a bad mood and keep it short.

"Seto?" Came the whispered reply. Seto relaxed marginally.

"Mokuba, your late? Where are you?"

"With me." The voice that had replaced Mokuba's on the other end was smooth, much older and completely unknown to the elder Kaiba.

"And who in the hell are you?" Seto snarled into the phone.

"You may call me Tucker. If you are wondering what I am doing with your brother…well lets just say I have a need for him. Now normally I wouldn't have dared involve you but I am a fair man. I'll give you directions to a certain warehouse." Tucker promptly rattled off a list of directions. At the end of the numbers of the warehouses sounded familiar, Seto sucked in his breath sharply. On the other end of the phone Tucker chuckled. "Ah yes, that I forgot to mention it is a building your company owns. Now do hurry Mr. Kaiba. I am not a man known for my patients." A slightly click and the dial tone was the only sound. Seto cursed then snapped the phone shut and dashed out of the office, sartling the poor secretary that was there. She stared after his retreating figure then sat down. By now she had learned not to ask questions.

In less than half an hour Seto Kaiba stood in front of the warehouse that Tucker had given as their meeting place before he went inside. For a few seconds Seto hesitate then strode though the already open door. Inside the building was piled with boxes, although of what he had forgotten to check. He hesitated at the door but a sudden cry of "Seto!" from inside decided him. He walked in.

"Mokuba?" There was no answer and Seto walked deeper into the warehouse, footsteps echoing. "Dammit Tucker where are you?"

"Behind you actually." The smooth voice came from the doorway and Seto whirled around. He narrowed his eyes at the two men standing in the door way. One was an older man, tall and thin with white hair and a large hooked nose. The man standing next to him was obviously his hired help, a giant of a man dressed all in black with a shaved head and dark sunglasses. In the giants arms was struggling Mokuba.

"Mokuba!" Seto started forward but a gun appeared in the giants hands. It was pointed directly at Mokuba's head. He stopped.

"I would have expected better from you Mr. Kaiba, fooled by a simple recording, really now."

"So your reduced to child tricks. Let Mokuba go right now!" Seto growled while he cursed at himself internally for falling for such a cheap trick. Tucker chuckled at him.

" I'm afraid I can't do that but don't you worry Mr. Kaiba. Richard will do no harm to you little brother. In fact his under strict orders not to. And you don't have to worry about his well being…at least while his in my hands . I'll make sure to take the very best care of him." Tucker let his mouth twist in might have been a reassuring grin originally but one that had turned into a sneer by the time it reached his lips.

"Like hell you will!" Seto growled and moved forward. Tucker and his lackey simply stepped backward and the door swung shut, a loud click echoing as it locked.

"Seto!" Mokuba cried and struggled harder. He had to get out. From the inside the black-haired boy heard the sounds of his brother trying the handle then cursing when he realized that it was locked. Mokuba began to struggle again, he had to help his brother! The giant squeezed him.

"Keep still brat!" He growled. Tucker laughed.

"It's useless Kaiba, you cannot get out and I'm afraid I need to do this as well." Something slammed into the other side of the door. "I told you it's useless, even if you could get out of there I have several armed men standing guard. But don't worry, there no one in there with you. It's just you, a tape recorered…." A muffled explosion reaced there is and Mokuba shouted in alarm. "and the bomb of course. Don't worry I that wasn't expected to kill Mr. Kaiba. The fire it started will do that."

He could hear the flames behind him, feel the heat and smell smoke. Seto pressed himself back against the door in an attempt to get away from the flames.

"You see Seto, I can't have you getting in the away and it was the other half of my request. Now, there is no way out of this building. I'm afraid your brother will have to field the news that you were burned to death in your own warehouse. Regrettable really but your death will not be connected to me, I've ensured that. And don't worry it will take you some time to die I believe, but it is nothing personal, this was all part of the arrangement I made." Tuckers smooth voice said from the other side of the metal door.

"Seto!" Mokuba's scream snapped the spell the dancing flames had cast on his older brother. Whirling around Seto pounded on the door in a useless attempt to get it open. He kicked it savegly, putting all his anger into it.

"Tucker you bastard! Leave Mokuba out of this!" He yelled. Energy at last exhausted Seto began to scan the door, noting that there was not lock on this side of it. _Dammit, that bastard really has made sure I can't get out of here! _ "If you don't let him go right now than you will pay when I get out of here!"

"I doubt you will get out of there at all Mr. Kaiba, but I am afraid I can't let your brother go. After all, its only Mokuba Kaiba I'm interested in." For a second there as a paused and the sounds of indistinct conversation then Tucker spoke again. "I am sorry Mr. Kaiba but I'm afraid I must leave. And you might wish to stop yelling. No one will hear you and losing oxygen will only hasten your demise and I do wish you to enjoy it."

"Get back here!" Seto hollered but was answered only by a faint cry from his brother, then silence. "Mokuba, Mokuba? What did you do to him!" There was now answer and a soft growl escaped the teenagers throat as he glared at the door. A sudden burst of heat from behind him sent a cloud of smoke his way and he began to cough. _Tucker must have made this place air tight! He went though a lot of trouble to make sure I died slowly. At this rate I'll have been killed by the smoke a long time before the fire gets here….probably just what that bastard wanted anyway. _ Seto coughed again and tried to find a weakness in the solid door. _Dammit, I don't have time for this! I am not letting that slime ball use my brother! Just hang on a few more minuet_s _Mokuba, I will get out of here and I will save you! _ The smoke had already filled most of the warehouse and Seto knew he only had a limited amount of time left. _I will do this! I'm getting out of her, I AM! _ As Seto train of thought headed in that direction he felt almost like he was touching a barrier in his mind, one that would not let him through. _I am going to survive this! _The duelist growled and he could almost fancy he felt the resistant in his mind intensify. _I am going to get out of here and rescue my brother and there is nothing anyone can do to stop me, nothing, you got that? NOTHING! _Then his mind relaxed and it was almost as if the wall in his mind as given way. Then sparks a flash of light lit the darkness of the building as an intense flashing of pain shot through his body and he fell to his knees. _What now…? _ Was his last coherent thought before he fell into darkness and collapsed.

When Seto opened his eyes again the first thought that ran through his mind was _Where in the hell am I? _

He had known he wasn't in the warehouse even before he opened his eyes. For one thing the smell of smoke was gone. The tempeture was also different, there was no heat and the air chilly.

Then he opened his eyes and was greeted with one of the oddest vistas he had ever seen. The owner of Kaiba Corp founded himself suspended in a landscape that seemed to be composed entirely of grey fog. The ground he was standing on was light grey, the area behind him was grey and what would have been the sky in real world was grey as well. The only break in the monotonous landscape was the elaborate iron gates in front of him. Just beyond them Seto could see the vague shapes of what might have been a courtyard of some kind, but they gates themselves were crisscrossed with multiple incredibly thick iron chains that were held in place by several massive padlocks. Seto took in the whole scene then realized something. _This has be a dream! I must have passed out and this is a hallucination. Dammit, I have to wake up! _

"Wake up!" He said out loud but nothing happened. For a second he contemplated waiting here until he woke up but immediately dismissed the idea. He had to find a way out of here! Turning he began to stride toward the gates themselves. Up close he realized that even though the chains were massive things with links nearly they size of his hand, they were in very poor condition. Most of them were almost totally rusted though and those that were whole were nearly there. The padlocks didn't look to be in much better condition, even though the gate itself seemed to be untouched. Seto stared at the gates for a few seconds before shaking his head.

"It looks like they're just about ready to fall apart." He said aloud and reached out to touch one the links. As soon as he made contact a flash much like the one in the warehouse went off and the chains didn't so much collapse as dissolve, turning into dust that fell from the gate only to vanish before it hit the ground. The padlocks lasted a bit longer but the moment they hit the ground with a loud clang that seemed to echo in the mists, they shattered. Seto took a step backward.

"What the?" In front of him the gate, now freed from the chains creaked open. For a moment the millionaire hesitated, then shook himself and walked through it. _Even if something in here I deadly, it can't hurt me, after all this is only a dream. _And even if something was deadly here all that would happen would be that he would wake up, what was what he really wanted to do anyway.

Inside Seto paused to look around. He was standing on an uneven square of bare stone ground. Embedded randomly in the floor were numerous stone tablets that appeared to be covered with some sort of writing There was nothing in this area that the gate had been guarding save two doors. Each of them made of stone and carved very elaborately. The one to his left was lighter with an angel standing guard over it while the door and carvings showed angels ascending to heaven. The one on his right was the exact opposite A devil stood guard over this one with the carvings dyed red and showing suffering souls, while demons and imps were depicted on the doors. When nothing happened immediately Seto glanced toward the two doors. With a somewhat ironic sneer, his opponents had sometimes called him demonic in his duels, he headed toward the door with the devil over it. As he neared it the door swung open for him.

On the other side as another uneven square of ground exactly like the first, only this time there was three doors. Although they each had almost the exact same carvings around them , each bore a different symbol on the doors themselves. A large blue symbol that vaguely looked like a stylized tear drop was on the door to his left, while the door in front of him bore a large purple symbol that had two stylized crescent moons back to back, and the last door had a light green symbol that looked almost like a stylized sprouting plant. A suddenly to desire to go through one of the doors suddenly seized Seto. He decided to go along with it, because this was after all only dream, one of _his _dreams. Choosing the door on his left he walked towards it and this one to swung open to admit him.

Within this area was the same floor was the rest of this place but instead of a door, all that was in this room was a large elaborately carved pedestal that was sitting one a square made out of iron. On the pedestal itself was a large stone that had symbol carved on it. The symbol was the same one that was one the door only this one was glowing. He stepped nearer eyeing it.

"What now?" Seto muttered in annoyance. Ehen nothing happened in snorted in disgust and turned to leave. **_Touch it. _** A voice echoed out of nowhere. The brunette whiled around and glared into the mists.

"Who's there?" He demanded but nothing answered him. Then the voice echoed again, and somehow Seto got the impression that it was faintly amused with him. **_ Touch the stone. _**  
"The stone?" Seto Kaiba turned and glared at the stone on the pedestal. When nothing answered his half-hearted question, he stalked over to the pedestal. "Fine anything to get out of here." The teenager placed his hand on the stone, then gasped involuntarily. It was as if his hand had been plunged into a bucket of ice water, wet and unbearably cold at the same time, even though only his palm was on the stone itself.

:_You seek my power: _ The voice echoed though his head, giving him the same feeling as the stone. Liquid and almost unbearably cold.

"What?" He stammered out, trying to keep his teeth from chattering. The young man tried to pull his hand away from the stone but realized that he was unable to. He was stuck, held here until he answered his question.

_:Power, do you seek my power?; _

"Fine, I do! Now let me go, dammit!" He growled. A suddenly flashed from the stone and his whole hand was engulfed in blue light. Seto turned his head away to keep from being blinded as he felt as if something was being pulled from him. What he wasn't sure what it was but he knew that _something_ was being taken, although he couldn't tell how he knew. At last the light faded and the stone let him go. With the resistance he had been pulling against gone, the millionaire stumbled backwards as a feeling of ice flowing across his veins filled his body as a new resolve entered him. Then that too faded and he was left gasping.

"What in the hell was that?" Then the sense of urgency, the need to get out of the fire and save Mokuba filled him again and he realized that he had stopped worrying when he entered the gates.

"I have to get wake up! That bastard still has Mokuba!" He sprinted toward the door and skidded to a stop in the area out side.

**_Try retracing your steps. _** The voice that had spoken to him the first time came again and this time Seto had the sudden impression that it was trying not to laugh at him. Still, he was in to much of a hurry to argue with some dream voice. He ran toward the hell door and it once again opened for him, then not stopping he ran though the iron gate…..and jerked awake one the floor of the warehouse.

Now the smoke was much thicker than it had been before and Seto realized that it was probably a good thing he was one the floor. The flames were nearer too, but the smoke was a much more pressing issue.

_I have to get out of here now! _ He tried to stand but he moment he rose he began to cough and could barely see as the smoke filled his vision. _I'm have to get out of here. I will same Mokuba, and I will get my revenge on that bastard Tucker! _ As the he steeled himself to get though this, that sudden resolve he had felt in his dream filled his mind once again. Then that cold, that feeling of ice flowing though is veins returned, only this time it was just a shadow of what it once was. Still he welcomed the slight relief from the heat of the warehouse. Then curiously when he focused on he felt that feeling intensify….then stop. For a second he paused something urged him to do….something. Open himself up to the ice and the power. Seto coughed again, smoke choking his lungs, so running out of time and with not other option he did just that.

Cold hit him like a sledge hammer, running though his veins, filling his veins with ice. He cried out in pain and bent double as the pain ran though him….then it stopped. He stood up, new strength running though him. This time the although the smoke was still there it didn't affect him as much. _What the hell? _Seto could still feel his body, and still feel himself in control but it was a vague detached feeling as if he was moving on autopilot with no direct control. It should have made him uncomfortable, he was used to being in control of himself, but this time though he could feel himself fighting for control but it was only a token gesture. Somehow he knew that fighting this would not be a smart move.

Meanwhile, while he was having his internal debate his body was still moving. It whirled toward the flames and for a second an annoyed growl, more animal than human came from his throat. He held his arms out in front of him and….pushed or something with his mind. A suddenly blizzard of white filled his vision and the fires died smothered under ice. A feeling of satisfaction ran though him before he turned to the door. A kick aimed at the door, which hadn't done anything the first time he tired, now dented the thing. He felt him self back up a few paces, then charged, ramming into it with his shoulder. The door was forced outward and nearly off it's hinges. Again he went back and again he charged. Only this time the door didn't just give way, it flew off it's hinges and slammed to the ground with a bang as he ran out into the cool night air.

At the end of the alley between buildings Tucker paused beside his car and glanced back at the warehouse, the one that was to be the coffin for a certain millionaire.

"I believe I will stay here for a few minuets." The gangster said. "I wish to see Kaiba dead. And I'm sure his brother will appreciate the view." Mokuba glared at the man, tears running down his cheeks.

"Seto's going to get out there, you'll see! Then he'll make you wish you're the one in there!" Tucker laughed softly.

"My dear boy I made sure that no one, not even you brother can escape. Even the door is very special…isn't that right Richard?" He glanced at the giant holidng the boy.

"That's right boss. No human can get out of there, even I can't budge that thing from then inside." From down by the warehouse something hit the ground with a bang and smoke began to billow out of the doorway.

"What?" Tucker glared at the thug. "I thought you said he couldn't get out of there!"

"He can't! Even I couldn't!" Suddenly somethingburst from the smoke and the few others that had been left behind make sure he was dead, screamed.

"Go see what's going on down there!" Tucker shouted. Richard noded then dropped his burden, stopping only long enough to slam his fist into Mokuba's stomach, dropping the boy before he could run away.

Then Richard pulled his own gun and ran toward the sound of gunfire.

Seto had attacked them as soon as he was within rage, flooring one of the hired thugs with a single punch. The others seeing what was happening, took one look at him screamed then opened fire. He dodged then dropped him with one well placed kick. A small part of him noticed that he was moving differently than he was used to, faster, smoother and he was hitting harder than he usually did. He shoved those to the back of his mind and concentrate on taking down the other three thugs. As the last one dropped he turned and found the man who had been holding Mokuba captive standing there, gun pointed in his direction shaking.

"What in the hell are you?" He stammered out. Seto growled low in his throat and once again it was more animalistic than anything else. He took a step closer.

"Stay back!" The thug opened fire but he was already running, letting loose with a kick as soon as he was close enough. His opponent staggered back but then righted himself, Seto spun around kicked again, this time sending him into a wall as he did so. The thug slid to the ground, eyes on him….or at least that Seto thought they were. He couldn't see them through his sunglasses.

"Please don't eat me!" The thug whimpered before he collapsed unconscious. That small part of his brain that had noticed he was moving differently awoke once again, this time more insistent than ever. It demanded to know why the thug would say something so ridiculous. Then he caught a glimpse of his reflection in the thugs sunglasses. But instead of seeing his face in them he saw a reptile, teeth showing though it's lips, tongue slipping out to taste the air, eyes focused on his. Seto gasped and stumbled backwards as the detachment he had been feeling faded and he staggered as the cold filled his veins once again. _No, no, it can't be! _ He shoved the cold back….and gasped as it disappeared and another flash of light blinded him temporarily as plain washed through him. Then he blinked and realized he was leaning over with is hands on his knees bracing himself as he gasped against the pain. _ I must have been hallucinating… just great. What in the hell did Tucker put in that warehouse? _ At that though he looked up and saw Tucker standing against his car staring at him, while a few feet away Mokuba lay on the ground. A sudden vicious smile crept on to his as he sprinted toward the gangster. Tucker screamed incoherently and ripped the door to his car open. He threw himself inside and slammed the door yelling at his driver. A few seconds before Seto could reach it the car peeled off. Ignoring him Seto dropped down next to his younger brother. A quick examination showed that aside from being unconscious his younger brother was relatively untouched. The brunette was about to pick him up when Mokuba woke up.

"Seto?" He mumbled.

"I'm right here. Are you alright?" His voice seemed to act as a catalyst to Mokuba's recovery. The boy struggled to sit up as soon as he heard his older brother.

"I knew you would get out of there Seto! Where's Tucker?" He glanced around looking for his kidnapper.

"Gone, he ran off like the coward he is when he realized I hadn't died in his idiotic trap." Seto stood up. "Let's go Mokuba." He started to walk away but stopped when he realized his little brother was standing up but not following. "What is it? Can you walk?"

"I'm fine Seto but are you alright?" His younger brother asked. Seto paused to catalogue his own injuries. Aside from various bruises and scratches he was mostly unhurt although his trench coat, a purple one, had several burns spots and smelled like smoke. Speaking of smoke…the millionaire realized at last that although he should have been coughing from the smoke he had inhaled earlier, he wasn't having any trouble breathing at all. At Mokuba's concerned look he sighed.

"I'm fine Mokuba. Can we go now?" He said in answer to the earlier question.

"But then why are your eyes red?" The question hesitant thought it was annoyed him.

"I've been in a fire Mokuba , of course my eyes are irritated."

"That's not what I mean Seto." Said brother turned to look at Mokuba curiously. "Your eyes aren't blue at all any more, they've changed color. They're red." Seto bought a hand up to his face involuntarily, while he wondered if Mokuba had lost his mind or if something really had happened to him. The young man wasn't sure which idea scared him more.

Across an ocean, on the other side of the world, in a strangely futuristic old house, an old man who had once been human jumped when a small stone suddenly burst into bright light.

"WHAT?" He yelled when he saw it. "Oh no, oh no…I can't believe it! That idiot boy managed to break the seal! Now what I am suppose to do? I know I promised but I'm just a little old man….I can't do anything!" He glared at the stone. "I should have never let them make me promise….although." The old man paused. "That seal was very strong…it's not like he could just force his way though it. And this is only suppose to be a warning anyway….you know I bet it's nothing. I'm sure they'll understand if I don't go running off at every single warning." He smiled slowly. "So I'll just wait here until someone tells me that I'm need, yep that's just what I'll do." With that decided the old magician known as Rodger Bacon began to look once again for the issue of Playboy he had been looking for.

Meanwhile in a forest near Iniugami village a pure while wolf paused, ears pricked toward something only it could here. Years ago it had been mortal but when it's time had come, the wolf known as Blanca had chosen to forgone the peace of the afterlife and instead become something more than what he was. One of the duties he had chosen was to guard the descendents of one of his close friends. That was why he knew what had happened even before the people who had placed the seal I the first place.

I told them this would happen. Blanca grumbled. You can't just seal up a harmonixers power. They're much to stubborn. The wolf started toward the village, wondering if anyone else knew that Seto's fusion power had unsealed itself.

Deep in Blue Castle a blond haired man was woken from his sound sleep by a blinking stone that he had laid down. Keith woke up and stretched, climbing out of his coffin as he gazed at the stone in resignation.

"I suppose it was too much to hope for." He said sadly. "Nothing could hold down Yuri for long either."

"At least it lasted this long though. Perhaps they fortot about him?" Keith didn't even start when he heard Joahicms voice. His older brother was the old other member of their family to posses a stone.

"I doubt it." The shorter Vampire snorted. "They just don't 'forget' about people. I just hope we can warn him in time." Keith started to walk toward the stairs.

"Where are you going?" Joahicm called after him.

"To contact our little sister. She has the best chance of getting to him in time." Joachim looked startled then disappointed.

"I wanted to warn him…" He sulked. Keith smiled.

"Don't worry I want to see Seto again as well. We'll just wait until after things have calmed down." Keith started to walk up the stairs. "In the meantime lets see if we can't find out what's happened while we've been asleep." Joachim nodded then sprinted after his brother.

Tucker burst into his hotel breathing ragged.

"ohgod, ohgod" He kept muttered under his breath as he scanned the room frantically for something with alcohol in it.

"Look for this?" A voice said from the back of the room. Tucker's blood chilled when he saw the main sitting in one of the chairs, his long straight black hair catching the light. Tucker nodded mutely then reached for the bottle of wine the man held. "Not so fast." He said and glared at him, dark green eyes catch the older man's and holding them. "Where is the younger Kaiba brother? I thought you had him."

"I did." Tucker snapped. "And if you hadn't given me orders to kill his brother we would still have him!"

"What do you mean? It's my fault your plans are incompetent?" The voice was soft but dangerously so. Green eyes bore into his.

"N..no! My plan would have worked if but that bastard Seto….he's not human!"

"What?" This time the man paused and shock flittered across his features.

"He turned into a monster lizard or something….he took out a solid steel door like its was cardboard! I barely escaped with my life."

"Are you sure about this?" The man was quivering with what Tucker was almost certain was excitement.

"He took out six of my men including my best one before he changed back into a human. Then he started coming after me and I got away by the skin of my teeth." The younger man looked into his eyes once more then threw back his head and laughed.

"So you tricked me did you Kai? Disguised him somehow? Cleaver, Cleaver Kai!" The man laughed some more, then handed the wine to Tucker. "Your payment will be delivered in full." He promised.

"But I lost the boy." Tucker said in confusion. The man smiled.

"But you brought me something even more valuable than that my friend." The man grinned againand Tucker shivered. "Something more valuable than you can imagine."

Authors Notes:

Okay this is my first Yu-Gi-Oh fic…well my first Shadow Hearts fic too but it's most Yu-Gi-Oh so that's why it's here. :-P

This is fic that's been rolling around in my head for a long time…ever since I played Shadow Hearts: Covenant in fact, and since Seto Kaiba is my favorite Yu-Gi-Oh character I had to write it at some point. I wrote it out now because I have writers block on another fic due to losing and _entire chapter_ of it due to computer problems and a corrupted disk!…ahem. Anyway… just so you know a lot of the ideas and things you see in here will be drawn from that game instead of the first one, even though I liked them both and characters from both games will appear…although I guess this chapter shows that, huh?

Oh, about the eye thing: I noticed when I was playing the second Shadow Hearts I noticed that both Kurando and Yuri had red or reddish colored eyes. And since the both had brown hair I decided that all harmonixers have red eyes and brown hair. Or at least that's my theory.

I've got a good idea for where this fic is going so another chapter will probably be written up soon but it will go faster if I have a lot of reviews (hinthint) So do please read and review…although I will ignore all flames.

--Plantress

PS: Seto's transformation is more like the animalistic first level transformations in the first game than the humanoid first level transformations that appear in the second game.


	2. Reaper

I do not own Yugioh or Shadow Hearts in any way shape or form. The only character I own is Cassandra.

**Shadow Dragon**

_Chapter Two: Reaper_

Seto Kaiba glared at the computer screen on his desk and he typed, although he really wasn't paying much attention to what was on the screen itself. Instead his mind was a million miles away thinking about other, more important things.

Like where in the hell that bastard Tucker was for one.

After the emergency crews had managed to get the fires under control he had been forced to answer some idiotic questions that the police started asking. Fortunately for him though, the thugs that Tucker had hired weren't very smart and had willing cooperated with the police in exchanged for reduced sentences. Yet Tucker had somehow managed to elude the police, disappearing off the face of the earth.

The thugs themselves hadn't been much help in finding their boss. All they knew was that Tucker was working for someone else. They didn't know who that someone else was, all they knew was that Tucker's meetings with him took place in a hotel room. A search had turned up nothing save a very expensive bottle of wine, so with no new leads the detectives had stopped searching enough though Seto had insisted they continued. But the lazy bastards had told him that since it wasn't a priority at the moment and no one (save the thugs) had been hurt, the saw no reason to continue.

Yanking his mind away from the idiots down at the police department, Seto tried to focus on his work but found his thoughts drifting away again. This time they settled on those thugs that he had beaten. Apparently they had all shared his hallucination and genuinely believed that he had turned into a monster. Seto snorted at the thought. He had known that those idiots didn't have much in the way of brains but they were apparently supervisions to. Only a real idiot would believe in the claims of magic, past lives and dark forces, things people like Yugi continually babbled on about. What really happened was probably a combination of smoke obscuring their vision, an over active imagination and the alcohol in the goons systems. One had seen something and scared all the others into seeing the same thing. It was a simple as that. A brief image of the reflection in the goons sunglasses surfaced in Seto's mind, but he shook it way. Instead he tried to focus on a more permanent problem, his eyes/

"If those idiotic quacks were as good as they say then the should have been able to fix this." He muttered to himself as his hand crept up to touch the corner of the left eye. Despite the reassurances of the best optometrists that money could buy that the change wasn't anymore than cosmetic, he still wasn't certain that Tucker hadn't planned to make sure that he suffered. So far his 20/20 vision was still perfectly safe but he wasn't going to take any chances for awhile.

Seto supposed that over time he would have gotten use to the random change…but those nutcase doctors had never heard to a persons iris suddenly changing color and tried to make a guinea pig out of him…or at least they had until he had threatened the lot of them with bodily harm if they tried anything involving cell scrapings again. He wasn't an experiment and he wasn't going to let a small thing like a color change upset his life! The only reason he had started wearing colored contacts to hide what had happened was because Mokuba had started giving him concerned glances when it became clear that he's eyes were still red a week or so after their escape. So he had the contacts made. Only his brother could have convinced Seto Kaiba to wear the damn things, and he would only wear them until Mokuba stopped worrying. He would eventually, Seto knew that. After all, it wasn't as if the his eyes could cause their lives to change, now could they.

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Down in the midst of Domino City and blond woman was sitting outside of a café idly stirring a cup of tea.

_Why did I come back here? _Mai Valentine asked herself as she watched traffic go by. _There is absolutely nothing going on in this city. There a million other places I could be, several tournaments I could be in at this moment but instead I'm here, for absolutely no reason at all. _She sighed. _I guess it's because this is one of the few places that has pleasant memories for me. And besides… _Mai glanced out the window. _As long as I'm in Asia there is almost no chance that I'll run into anyone from home, except maybe Her. _The duelist glanced out the window. _Even if she did show up in Japan though I don't think she come to some place like Domino. Kyoto, Tokyo…she's always been mad about sightseeing. She couldn't come here. _

Mai paid for her meal and the left, glad to have found a parking spot right out front. She headed for her car, deciding that she would head to somewhere else…Australia maybe. According to rumors there was going to be a rather elite tournament going on over there soon.

"Hey! Mai is that you?" The blond duelist whirled around then relaxed when she recognized the voice.

"Joey? What are you doing here?" Mai asked as the blond teenager ran up to here. Behind him where Tristan, Tea, and Yugi. "What are all of you doing here?"

"I was just about to ask ya the same question." Joey panted. "Ya usually don't turn up here without a reason. So what's going on this time, Kaiba throwing another tournament?"

"For your information I'm just passing though. Places like this have no interest for me." She turned back toward her car. She barely noticed the man walking up the side walk until he spoke.

"There you are Mai." The soft masculine voice said from her right. Mai felt the blood drain from her face. Joey must have noticed something because she heard him say.

"You alright Mai?" as she turned toward the owner of the voice, a voice she did no want to hear.

"Keith, what in the hell are _you _doing here?" She snapped. He just smiled.

"So I'm not allowed to see my younger sister anymore? It's not like I can see you at home you know, you haven't been back their in years."

"Wait a minuet here!" Joey yelled. Brother and sister turned toward the blond boy. "Younger sister?" The teen pointed at Keith disbelief on his face. "Mai, this guy is your brother?"

"Yes, didn't Mai tell you?" Keith asked puzzled.

"Look, family didn't really get discussed that much ." Mai interrupted before anyone could answer. "And I know you didn't come all this way just to chat Keith. Tell me what you want so I can get out of here." The older sibling suddenly frowned and looked very serious.

"A family matter Mai and a very grave and private one." He glanced toward the group of teens. "Can we go somewhere less….public?"

"Hold on! What kinda of things can't be said in front of Mai's friends?" Joey asked from behind them

"Joey!" Tea yelled. The brunette clapped a hand over her friends mouth then smiled at the brother and sister. "Please excuse Joey, he's always been a bit of an idiot."

Mai ignored the antics of the two and glanced at Keith who caught her eye. The look in his told her that this wasn't something that just anyone should know about, and had to be taken care of fast. Shaking her head Mai turned toward the parked convertible again.

"Get in the car Keith." She sighed as she opened the door. He hesitated. "What is it now?" She snapped. Keith sweat dropped.

"Remember what happened the last time I was in a car with you?" He asked. Mai glared at him.

"That was years ago Keith! I'm not going to crash it this time, go get in." With a slight shiver the elder brother climbed into the car. Mai took off as soon as he was seated, anxious to get away from the curious gazes of her friends.

As soon as they were far enough away from the café Mai spoke up. Speeding down the road was probably the safest place to talk right now. "Tell what's so important that it dragged _you _out of Blue Castle?" In answer Keith held out a small glowing stone.

"That's a warding stone…." Mai whispered as she tried to keep one eye on the rode. Her brother nodded gravely.

"One who's seal has been broken. Some one has broken the seal we placed around the Harmonixer powers of that boy. You know the reason that Kai asked us to seal them off in the first place Mai, and now that there aren't sealed anymore _he_ is likely to come looking for him."

"So what does this have to do with me?" Mai jerked the steering will hard enough to cause Keith to swear and grab the seat reflexively. "I didn't really have anything to do with placing the seal in the first place. If your so worried then why don't you warn the kid or something."

"That's why I came to you Mai. I can't get close to him. I know that Reaper is probably still keeping an eye on me, if not mundanely than magically. We're still not sure if Reaper has actually located Seto yet and if I go to him then I might give him away."

"So you want me to do it. What don't you send Hilda or Joachim then? Why me?" Mai turned a conerner.

"Because Hilda helped set the seal and I don't think Joachim would be taken seriously." Keith shrugged. "Besides you're a duelist too, he might listen to you because of that."

"A duelist?" Mai asked surprised. "Well that makes things easier I guess. What's his name?"

"He changed his last name now. That's why I took me longer than I liked to located him. He is now know as Seto Kaiba." A screech echoed down the street as Mai abruptly slammed on the breaks of her car, nearly causing the driver behind her to crash into her car. The drivers curses were drowned out by Mai scream of "WHAT?" She turned to her brother who had gone as white as a stereotypical movie vampire.

"You mean that Seto Kaiba, the head of the Kaiba corporation is a harmonixer?" A horn blared from behind her and Mai was forced to start the car again. Slowly Keith managed to unhook his hand from the edge of his seat. Not trusting his voice the vampire nodded then swallowed.

"That's why I want you warn him Mai. Maybe he'll listen to you." A snort came from the drivers seat.

"Look Keith, that arrogant jerk won't listen to anyone or anything. He's sure he knows it all and he won't listen to anyone who tells him other wise." Mai turned toward a nearby train station. "Besides he doesn't' even believe in magic! If getting his soul stolen by ancient Egyptian shadow magic failed to pierce his sheield of denial than I don't think that anything, even Hilda's innocent little eyes will." Mai pulled into the parking space in front of the station. "He's not going to listen to me Keith. Now got get Hilda or someone he might and good lucky doing that.." Keith climbed out of the car but stood their for a second with one hand on the door.

"Could you at least try to do this Mai? You're the only one in our family that can, none of us will be able to get close. I know that some of the others who helped create the seal will send their own warnings but I'm not sure they'll get though. I need you to do this Mai, will you please?" There was an almost pleading note in his voice. Mai winced. _Dammit, he knows that's the only argument I can't refuse. He knows that was the only reason I couldn't help with the seal in the first place and the reason no one in the family but my siblings take me seriously._

"I'll try" She said after a few seconds. "But don't expect any miracles." Keith nodded but smiled.

"And Mai, could you please come home everyone once in a while? Everyone misses you, you know." As her brother vanished amidst the hordes of people on the platform Mai crossed her arms over the steering will and dropped her head on them.

"Miss me? Yeah right." She whispered as she blinked tears away. Mai had always hated dealing with her family.

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In the Kaiba mansion a grandfather clock that had been in the family for generations chimed out five o'clock. Seto, stood up from behind the desk in his home office. He glanced out the window and noticed the clouds that where hanging low and heavy in the sky. _It's going to start raining before long. _He grumbled to himself internally. Seto Kaiba hated the rain.

With a soft growl of annoyance at he weather the elder Kaiba stalked out of his office and out of pure habit locked it as he left. For security reasons Seto kept the project he was working on personally in his home office behind plain lock and key with and electronic security system to back it up. No one would get any Kaiba Corp secrets out of his house. Idly wondering what Mokuba was doing at that moment Seto set off down the hall in the direction of his little brothers room. A sudden thump from inside one of the unused rooms in the mansion drew his attention aside, and he turned toward the door that lead to the room scowling. As far as he knew the few servants he had were on the other side of the house from here. Seto grabbed the doorknob and turned it, opening the door to the room in one smooth motion.

"Alright whose in….here?" His voice trailed off as he gazed at the rooms occupants. There was someone sitting in a chair facing the door. Afternoon sunlight poured in through the windows behind the chair leaving the figure in the chair mostly in shadow, but when the person lifted it's head it's black hair fell away from its face and Seto could see that it was a man, a man with eyes so light green that they were almost silver. That was the first thing that meet Seto eyes when he entered the room. Then he noticed the small figure laying at the mans feet.

"Mokuba!" Seto threw himself toward the two, hoping to grab Mokuba and get out of here. The man didn't do anything but Seto slammed into the something that was hard and unyielding. The teenager barely had time to register that he had hit solid air when a force slammed into him and sent him flying backwards to hit the wall next to the door.

"Did you really think it was going to be that easy?" The man commented, deep voice amused. "I would have expected better from the famous Seto Kaiba."

"Who in the hell are you?" Seto demanded, wincing as he got to his feet. The millionaire could already fell bruises forming.

"I am known as Reaper." The man stated as he stood up. He studied Seto's face for a few seconds, then sighed. "But as I suspected, Kai didn't even bother to tell you about me. Part of the seal he placed on you I suppose."

"Kai?" Seto shifted to a crouch. "I don't know anyone called…" Suddenly a name and face from his past flashed up in front of the teenager's eyes and he froze. "Wait, you don't mean, you can't mean…."

"Your birth-father? Of course that who I mean Seto! He is the person you inherited your startling abilities from after all."

"What do you mean?" Seto growled. Reaper sighed again.

"The transformation abilities that you scared poor Tucker with so much? I know you have to have the difference in your eyes if nothing else! Surely you know what I'm talking about?"

"You know Tucker? Where is he hiding?" Seto shifted so that he was closer to Reaper and his brother. He still wasn't sure what in the heck it was he had hit last time but he had to maker sure that this time he got through..

"Of course I know Tucker, Seto. I'm the one who sent him to kidnap Mokuba after all." Reaper gestured toward the boy who was still laying at his feet.

"You bastard!" Seto growled and threw himself toward Reaper, only to repelled once again. This Seto stayed down, the wind knocked out of him by the impact. Reaper tsked at the teenager and then sighed once more.

"I thought you were more intelligent than that Seto, but you are either an idiot or willfully blind." Reaper sat down once again. "Now I will give you one chance Seto Kaiba. Fuse and I will give you a chance to take your brother back. That is all you have to do for me."

"Fuse? What in the heck are you talking about? I'm not a duel monster!"

"I'm not talking about your little card game Seto. As interesting as the Shadow Magic is, I am not interested in it at this time." Reapers pale eyes meet Seto's. "However I am interested in your power Seto, the power of a harmonixer. The power that you posses Seto."

"I don't know what your blabbering on about" Seto panted as stood up carefully. "But I know your as insane as Pegasus. I don't have any power."

"Really?" Reaper arched an eyebrow at the teen. "Then what happened out at that warehouse? You transformed out there and you know it Seto. If you didn't then you wouldn't be denying it quite so much." For a few seconds Seto froze as memories of the fire, a door carved with symbol and the memory of an icy power filled his mind. The millionaire shook his head to dispel the images.

"If you believe those goons that Tucker hired than your even crazier than I thought." The grin that Reaper flashed in Seto's direction was a triumphant one.

"But you saw something too, didn't you Seto? I can see it in your eyes, you know the truth." Seto swallowed suddenly as a familiar chill entered his mind. It was the same icy feeling he that had felt during the fire. Quickly he drove it do the back of his mind.

"I don 't care what kind of mumbo jumbo you bark at me, I refuse to believe that I can turn into a dragon!"

"Willfully blind." Reaper said, almost too himself. Then he stood up, only this time he also reached down and picked up Mokuba, hosing him over his shoulders as if the boy were little more than a sack of potatoes.

"Mokuba!" Seto yelled. "Put him down right now or…."

"Or you'll what?" Reaper asked blandly. "You are in no position to be making demands Seto." Reaper reached into a pocket of the long black robes he was wearing then threw something in Seto's direction. The millionaire ducked instinctively but when nothing hit him, he looked up and saw a dagger imbedded a good foot or so over his head. Impaled upon the dagger was a piece of paper.

"Written on that paper is an address to an abandoned building. I will place your brother in the deepest basement room. And don't worry Seto, I promise not to harm him."

"You want me to believe your going to let Mokuba go that easily." Seto glared at the other man. "What's the catch?"

"Very good Seto. You just might be a genius after all!" Reaper smiled but it was one of the most malicious things that Seto had ever seen. "I promise not to harm you little brother but the creatures in that house don't have such scruples. They will be all to glad to have a snack brought to them, I'm sure. I will place a barrier around little Mokuba of course but it won't last long. I would hurry if I were you, Seto." A red light had been gathering around the outline of Reaper as he spoke. At the last word the light suddenly seemed to explode outward, temporarily blinding Seto. When the millionaire was finally able to blink the spots from his eyes Reaper and Mokuba were gone. Mutter obscenities under his breath, Seto got to his feet. He reached out and yanked the dagger from the wall, grabbing the piece of paper as he did so. Almost immediately after that the dagger burst into flames. Seto dropped it with another curse, and watched as it was turned to ash almost instantly leaving nothing more than a small burned spot in the carpet.

Seto's hand clenched around the piece of paper. "You are going to pay for this Reaper." He said allowed before turning and running out of the room, ignoring his bruises.

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In Domino City a high school girl was walking home, her bag at her side. Cassandra sighed and swore to herself that she would never ever let Megumi borrow her notes again. This time her friend had managed to loose half of them a day before they had a test. Fortunately for Megumi's peace of mind the only reason Cassandra had lent her the notes in the first place was because the she was already done again.

As she walked, Cassandra reached up and idly readjusted the glasses that sat over her grey-green eyes, wondering if Grandfather would need any help in the shrine. Technically the teenager didn't really need to help since her Uncle was the one who stood to inherit the place after Grandfather died, but Cassandra liked going. Reiko had never understood her daughters devotion to a place that the she had always thought was mildly creepy, but Cassandra hadn't bother to tell her mother the real reasons why she went to the shrine after school most days. Mother wouldn't have believed her anyway, the gift that had been in her mothers side of the family has skipped over the younger daughter entirely.

Suddenly the sound of breaking glass filled the air and Cassandra froze, wondering where it came from. Around her people continued what they were doing, acting as if they hadn't heard anything at all. For a few seconds the high schooler was puzzled, but then she realized it was because there hadn't been any sound at all. She hadn't 'heard' anything break at all, she had felt in her mind so intensely that she had been fooled into thinking it was a physical sound. There were very few things that could cause something like that to happen. However, Cassandra realized after a minuet or so there was something near here that could have cause it. Heart hammering in her chest Cassandra broke into a run and dashed around the corner nearly running down some other kids from her school. After a few blocks the young woman slowed down and she leaned over panting as she tried to get her breath back. In front of her was a old broken down mansion that was at least seventy years old.

Numerous attempts had been made to demolish it but they had all failed. Sometimes it was because of the creatures that lived inside and sometimes it was stopped by people like her, the ones who knew what would happen if all the malice that was sleeping that building was suddenly released by its destruction.

All that flashed though Cassandra's mind and was then pushed away. History was not important right now, but what was important was that the barrier her grandfather had constructed, the barrier that was suppose to keep people out of the building, was gone. Shattered, as if it had never been there in the first place. Cassandra gazed up at the building. With no barrier anymore there was nothing to keep people from wandering in and getting killed by the malice creatures that had made this place their home. For a second the high schooler paused, then she stepped toward the gates. Although the two halves of the gate where held together by a chain, it was loose and the left half didn't close right. If you ducked under the chain there was just enough room to squeeze though into the yard. Cassandra ducked through he opening then stood up, looking around to see if there was any signs that someone had wandered in here. The tall grass that surrounded the gate hadn't been disturbed in anyway, and it looked as if Cassandra was the only one who had been here recently. The young woman gave a relived sigh then ducked back through the gates. Since no one was in any immediate danger she would go home and change out of her school uniform then go and tell Grandfather what had happened.

Less than fifteen minuets later, wearing blue jeans and green turtle-neck that she had grabbed out of her closet, Cassandra finished telling her story. Her grandfather rubbed his temples then sighed.

"Are your sure you _felt _it shatter, Cassy?" The young woman nodded and the old man shook his head. "I was afraid that was what it was. If the barrier had faded away or simple failed….it wouldn't' have been to surprised. That barrier was old, I placed it there many years ago. But for it to shatter…..it could just be that the currents of the magic that supported it were twisted somehow, but I doubt that…." Feel very old indeed the priest stood up. "But whatever happened we have to recast that barrier. If we don't then someone will get hurt."

"But what if it was shattered it on purpose Father?" Uncle Koji spoke up. "We have to make sure that there is nothing there."

"Good point." Grandfather nodded. "But I'll need you here helping me with the preparations…." The old mans eyes fell on his granddaughter. "Cassy?"

"Yes?"

"I want you go check inside of the old mansion."

"You can't be serious!" Koji jumped up. "She's still a child you can't mean for her to…." Grandfather held up his hand.

"I do mean for her too." He looked down at his granddaughter. "Cassandra, this is what I have been training you to do. I don't think that there is anything in that house that will be that much of a threat to you, but still be careful. You followed both your Uncle and I on various requests, you know who serious this could be, so be very careful."

"I will." Cassandra promised. Her Grandfather smiled at her.

"But one more thing Cassandra. Do not go any deeper into that place than you have to. If you do not find anything on the first floor then do not go any further, come back and tell us instead. The same goes if you find out who or what shattered the barrier. Do not try to fight them, instead leave as quickly as possible and come back here." He kneeled down to look her in the eye. "Do I make myself clear, Cassandra?"

"Yes Grandfather. I'll be careful." Her Grandfather smiled at her. "Good, now go get ready."

Later, Cassandra once again stood in front of the old mansion, a trill of pride running through her. She had never been allowed to work on her own before and she was determined to make her grandfather proud. After check to maker sure the braid that she had twisted her hair into was secure, ducked through the gate, pulling her weapon, a naginata behind her. Cassandra straightened up then froze. Someone else had already been to the mansion. A trail of broken grass lead up to the front door, then turned and lead away, disappearing round the back of the house. Suddenly a the sound of breaking wood came from that direction and Cassandra kicked into a run, fighting against the long grass.

"I hope I'm not too late." She muttered.

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Seto blink as his eyes readjusted to the dark interior of the old mansion. Most of the windows where boarded up, so very little light reached the inside hallway he now found himself standing in.

It had been rather easy to find the mansion, it was one of the oldest and largest buildings in this area. Once he had seen the building itself Seto had realized what that lunatic calling himself Reaper was up too. _He probably thinks I'll loose my nerves because of the haunted house. _Seto snorted. _Idiot. I'm not scared of ghost stories. _

He had started to go in the front door then realized that was probably what Reaper had been expecting him to do. _Probably has traps set up on the other side to try and scare me. _So instead of going in that way, Seto had went round to the back until he found another door and kicked that one in.

Now he found himself standing in a dusty hallway that had broken furniture littered along it.

"Very scary Reaper. Did you really think I'm going to back down because you threw me into a b-moive haunted house?" He said out loud as he walked down the corridor. "I am going to find my brother and then I will find you and make you pay."

A sudden sound from behind one of the pieces of furniture and Seto stopped, shit his weight back into a fighting stance. "Whose there?" He yelled.

A little girl peeked out from behind the tangle of table and chairs. All Seto could see was her upper body but she was wearing a torn red kimono, and long ragged black framed red eyes and sickly green skin.

"Is this all you are Reaper" Seto snorted. "A lunatic who likes to dress kids up as ghosts and scare people? I'm not impressed." He took a step toward the girl, and she opened her mouth to revel pointed fangs. She let loose and pricing shrieked and launched her self towards Seto. He reacted before he even though about it, lashing out with his fist and hit the girl hard enough to knock her out the air. The pang of guilt he felt at first, he hadn't wanted to hit a little girl, was wiped away when he good a good look at her. From the waist down she looked normal but her lower half wasn't human. It looked more like a coiled lump of flesh the same sickly green as the skin on her face and hands. Seto froze and the monster launched herself at him again. This time shock caused Seto to react slower than he had before and he barely had time to block. The monster had been aiming for his throat. It hit his arm instead and immediately sank shaft fangs into it.

Seto yelled in pain and slammed the monster into the wall. She let go of his arm with a shriek and dropped to the floor. He kicked her away from him and into the tangle furniture she had came out from. The creatures wailed and collapsed into a small puddle of slime. Seto barely had time register this as two more of the monsters emerged from the tangle. They screamed and launched themselves at him. This time Seto was more prepared. He managed to knock one on to the floor and kick it against the wall where it collapsed into a puddle as well. The other one he dodged but it managed to give a swipe as it went passed him, leaving along bloody scratch to his face. He whirled around and kicked it as it landed, then when it lunged at him again, backhanded it into a wall. The creature now joined the other two puddles on the floor.

For a few seconds after the battle was over, Seto stayed in a ready stance, unable to move. Then slowly he straitened, eyes darting around as he took stock of his injuries. He was fine aside from the bite on his arm and the scratch on his cheek. Seto looked down at the puddles, rapidly shrinking as they evaporated. The millionaire was almost tempted to believe this was a dream….but you the bite and scratch were starting to sting.

"What in the hell is going on here?" He demeaned out loud. No one answered. Seto stood and watched as the puddles shrank wonder what in the heck they where. After a few minuets he shook himself mentally. Reaper had said he was going to leave Mokuba in the basement of the. Alone, with no defense against those….whatever they where. Seto growled. He could figure out exactly what these monsters where later. Right now he had to find his brother.

Once again Seto started down the corridor but he had only gone a few strides when something sharp bit into his ankle and he tripped. Seto caught himself before his face hit he floor and he turned around shifting into a crouch. Staring back at him was a snake…a snake with the head of a beautiful woman. Seto shivered in disgust. The snake licked her lips with a forked tongue then launched herself at him. Seto tensed and prepared to dodge….just as blade split the naga in two. Seto froze looked up at the person who was holding the naginata. It was a girl around his own age.

The two stared a each other for a few seconds, then the girl pointed her weapon at him.

"What are you doing here?" She demanded.

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Authors Notes: This took longer to get out than I had planned but the new Shadow Hearts came out and I had to play that. Then Kingdom Hearts II came out and I got my hands on that….anyway chapter two is now up. When I was rereading this I noticed that poor Yugi didn't get to say anything! But since this fic is mostly about Seto Kaiba and Yugi is the star of the series….it all evens out.

Mai is finally in the fic and she is the one who gave he the idea for this fic in the first place. When I first got Shadow Hearts II I noticed that Mai's last name in English is Valentine and she's blond. Both Joachim and Keith are blond and they have the last name Valentine as well. I though that was strange coincidence, and then I found out that Joachim had sister, one that wasn't named in the second game! I decided that Mai was Joachim sister. While I was ponder that fact somehow the idea that Kaiba could be a harmonixer popped into my head.

Of course then Hilda showed up in the third game and I had to rewrite some of the plot to include her. And I am still support my Harmonixers-have-red-eyes-and-brown-hair theory by say thing all Harmonixers from Japan have red eyes and are brunette.

Oh and thanks to LynnGryphon for reviewing. I'm glad you like the concept.


	3. Snakes in a Mansion

Yu-gi-oh and Shadow Hearts belong to various other big important people.

Cassandra, Reaper and the monsters in this chapter belong to me.

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**Shadow Dragon**

_Chapter Three: Snakes in a mansion_

Seto Kaiba stared at the girl who was holding the naginata for a few seconds, then scowled. "I could ask you the same question." He snapped. Seto tried to stand, but the blade pricked him under the chin when he tried to rise.

"Answer mine, first." The girl asked. He glared at her.

"Why should I?" The millionaire shifted his weight slightly.

"Because I am the one holding a weapon here, you're the most suspicious person in this house, and if you don't I'm going to hurt you.."

"So your not suspicious at all." Seto growled sarcastically

"No, actually I'm not. I am suppose to be here and you're not."

"Your suppose to be in a decrepit old house?" Sarcasm thick enough to cut could be heard in the statement.

"I'm suppose to find out what happened to the Grandfathers barrier, and I find it strange that the moment I come back here there is already someone inside."

"And I find it suspicious that someone that apparently hates me sends me to a condemned house and then the next thing I know some little girl I've never even meet is pointing a weapon at me." He glared at the girl on the other end of the weapon. "As far as I'm concerned your even more suspicious than I am."

"If it was someone that you hate so much, why did you even come here?" The girl asked, eyes on his face.

"Why should I tell you?" Seto narrowed his eyes at the girl, studying her. "Don't you already know?" She snorted at him.

"I work for no one but myself." Was all the girl said. "And if I was your enemy," She pulled the naginata back and then swung him towards him at an incredibly fast speed, stopping the blade inches from his neck. "I would have done something to you already."

"Really?" Seto grabbed the shaft of the weapon and pushed it away as he stood up. The girl didn't move but stood their studying him.

"You know, I don't believe you did drop the barrier. You don't have the aura of a magic user." He glared at her.

"So your just letting me go." He asked sarcastically.

"No, you may not have dropped the barrier but I'm still not convinced your innocent." As she talked Seto glanced out of the windows and noted with some alarm how low the sun was getting

"Suspect me all you want, but I'm going to search this pile of rubble. You can try to stop me if you want." Seto started to walk away . There was silence from behind him, and then the sounds of footsteps hurrying to catch up. The millionaire tensed expecting an attack but when none came and the foot steps fell in to a regular pattern behind him he turned to glare at the girl behind him.

"What are you doing?"

"This is the only hallway that leads into the house." She pointed out. Seto growled but couldn't really do anything about it. The two continued on for a few minuets, until there was a rustle on both sides and suddenly two of the green girl-things he had killed before and two of the serpents-things attacked them. This time he was ready and took out one of the monster girls and managed to kill one of the naga's, only to look up and realize that there was no more enemies. He looked over and noticed that the girl was just straightening up from her own fighting stance.

"I can fight you know." She said in when she caught him looking at her. "But I didn't know you did. Although I guess anyone who would try to fight malice monsters with out any magic or weapons."

"Malice monsters?" That was something that he had never heard before.

"Malice is made up of negative humans emotions. It accumulates in places where a massive of amount of negative emotions have been released, usual the a sites of violent deaths and it twists the spirits and animals in those places in to monsters and evil spirits."

"Look, I don't care what you say I am not going to believe that I'm fighting ghosts." The girl looked at him in surprise.

"How do you explain what you've seen?"

"I don't know but I intend to find out." Was all the reply Seto gave as he swept off down the corridor. For a few seconds Cassandra stood staring, then she went after him shaking her head.

After the two had reached the end of the hallway it split into two more that lead to different parts of the mansion. Seto took one then looked back in surprise to see the girl following him.

"What are you doing now?" He snapped in her direction.

"I don't trust you." As all the answer she gave. For a second Seto thought about _making _her go away but then decided against it. He hadn't liked the way Reapers note had been phrased and he wanted to find Mokuba as soon as possible.

The hallway led to several doors that lead into decrepit rooms. Almost all of them where dead ends and Seto was getting tired to being attacked by monsters.

"I haven't introduced myself have I?" Came from behind him. "My name is Cassandra."

"I really don't care." He snapped and turned to glare at her. Cassandra glared back.

"It's polite to give your name." She retorted. He glared for a few more seconds then turned around.

"Seto Kaiba." He said shortly, then walked off. Cassandra followed, wondering why his name sounded so familiar. After a bit more exploring, (pointless wandering around Seto called it) the two managed to find a staircase that lead up to the second floor. Seto went right past it.

"Your not going upstairs?" Cassandra asked.

"No." Was the rely. She shrugged and followed the young man. Seto went through another door and came out in what had once been a large kitchen. It was ruined now. Cassandra wandered in after him and explored then kitchen itself, as Seto cursed. The search was taking up too much time and he didn't even know how much time Mokuba had left. Just as he was about to leave Cassandra spoke up.

"Well this is interesting…." Annoyed Seto stalked over to where she was standing intending to yell at her, but stopped when he saw what she was looking at. A wooden door was set into the wall of the kitchen, but for some reason it looked as if someone had painted a large turquoise symbol directly onto the door.

"It looks like someone doesn't want us going through here.

"What makes you say that?" Seto growled, she motioned to the door with her weapon.

"That." Was all she said.

"Some paint?" He snorted and reached toward the doorknob, ignoring the symbol on the door.

"Wait!" He head Cassandra call from behind him. "If you touch that then….."

"Please." Seto snorted in response. "If you believe that I am going to stop because of some 'magic' symbol that someone painted on the door than you are even more gullible than I though….." His hand closed around the doorknob. Immediately an electric jolt shot though his hand, throwing it off the knob and hitting the millionaire hard enough make him take a step back. Shocked Seto glanced down his hand. Although there wasn't physical signs of damage on the appendage, it still hurt. He rubbed it and glared at the door. Behind him Cassandra spoke up.

"I did warn you." Annoyed Seto turned to the girl and glared.

"How did you know that the door was booby-trapped?" He demanded.

"The rune on the door." Cassandra replied, ignoring the threat in the his voice. "Like I said before, it's a physical sign that someone has set up a barrier to keep us out. Despite what you want to think it's not as simple as a booby-trap."

"You seem to know an awful about this. And you just happened to show up and pointed me in this direction." Seto's eyes narrowed as he regarded Cassandra. To her credit the young woman meet his glare with her own.

"Like I said, if I was working for someone who was after you I wouldn't waste my time with petty tricks and deceptions." Cassandra smiled grimly. "I would have already done some thing." The two teenagers stood glaring at each other for a minuet or so before Seto broke the silence.

"Lets pretend for a few minuets that I actually do believe you. How am I suppose to get though here?" Seto stared as Cassandra took a few steps forward so that she stood next to the millionare. The young woman closed her eyes and lifted her right hand, and held the open less than an inch from the glowing rune.

"Barriers like this have to have a key or some other anchor point nearby. It's strong but because that anchor has to be close so it's fairly easy to find."

"If you know so much then tell me where it is so that I can break it, find Mokuba and get out of this hell hole." Cassandra opened one eye and glare at the millionaire.

"It's not that easy. Someone's set protections on it so I can't find it's location directly. All I know is that it's above us." She glance up. "Upstairs." Seto snorted and walked off.

"Where are you going?" Cassandra called after him.

"Where do you think?" He looked back over his shoulder and glared at her.

"I thought you didn't believe in magic?" Seto snorted and face forward once again.

"Look, it don't know what's going here, and I'm not saying I trust you or believe all this nonsense that your spouting about magic and barriers. But I can't get past that door and if going upstairs to break whatever's stopping me will help save my brother than I don't care what you call it." The millionaire started back towards the stairs once again, trench coat swinging behind him. Cassandra stared after him for a few seconds the walked forward to catch up.

"Brother?" She asked when the caught up to Seto. The millionaire ignored her and stared up the stairs.

"So whatever we're looking for is up there?" He asked.

"It should be, mostly likely in a room directly over that door. Now what did you mean by 'brother'?" Seto continued to ignore the young woman that had followed him up the stairs. He reoriented himself and started off down the right hall, trying to remember where in the heck the door to the basement was in comparison to the upstairs, and fight off the annoying beasts that kept crawling out of the woodwork to attack them. The duo found the door they was looking for at last, but Seto wasn't happy about it. Cassandra was following the tall young man and nearly ran into him when he stopped abruptly.

"What the hell is this?" He snapped back at Cassandra. The young woman stepped around him and stared at the door as well.

"I guess whoever set this up isn't going to make things that simple." She said unnecessarily as she examined the glowing rune that was a match for the one below, only this one was glowing purple. "They set up another barrier to keep us away from the anchor point for the first one. This is why I had trouble pinpointing it from downstairs."

"No kidding." Seto snorted. "So how do we get rid of this one?" Cassandra stepped up and placed her held her hand over the symbol.

"Same way, it's the same type of barrier." She said in response as she closed her eyes. This time she opened them much faster than she had downstairs. "This one is much closer and it's not shielded like this one is. It's that way ." Using her naginata the young woman pointed toward the right, farther down the corridor. With a growl and a last heated glare at the door, Seto started toward the other anchor point. Farther along they reached a door and Cassandra opened it with out hesitation. They walked into what looked like a old sitting room , complete with fireplace. In the middle of the room a circle made of symbols was etched out in red light on the floor.

"Is that what they key or whatever it is where searching for?" Seto asked. Cassandra nodded and narrowed her eyes at it.

"It should be…." She said slowly.

"Should be?"

"It's the wrong color." Cassandra explained as she walked forward and started to prowl around the circle. "The rune was purple."

"Didn't you just say this was where it was?"

"I said this should be it. And it is, it has the same aura as the rune…only it's off somehow."

"Just tell me it's the key or not!"

"I think the only way for sure is to break it and see what happens." Cassandra stopped moving and frowned at the circle.

"How do we break it?" Seto stepped forward.

"Just touch it. That should disrupt the patterns." Seto glanced at Cassandra then, scuffed at the edged of the circle with his foot. It glowed then suddenly left out a bright flashed that temporarily blinded both the people in the room. As the two of them blinked rabidly to clear their vision a sound of something slithering reached their ears. Seto turned as his vision began to return and was just in time to see three _things_ emerge from the fireplace. They looked almost exactly like the naga from before except that these where bright green and their human heads had snakes growing out of their scalps instead of hair.

"Medusas, just what we need." Cassandra muttered. "Don't look into their eyes. I don't think you'll turn to stone with this type but it's better not to take chances. Try and finish them off quickly." Seto almost made a remark on that then decided it was better to keep quite and heed her advice. He was sure he wouldn't turn to stone just because he looked into the eyes of theses monsters but he was almost sure they were poisonous. With a hiss the three horrors threw themselves at the humans.

Seto dodged the first attack and mange to hit that monster as it shoot past. He turned and managed to catch it before it could turn around, easily defeating it. The medusa screamed as it collapsed and then seemed to ….dissolve, it's body fading into the air until there was nothing left to show that anything had been there. As the millionaire stared at the space the creature had occupied another death scream came from somewhere behind him as Cassandra finished off her opponent. A sudden movement out of the corner of his eye caused Seto to dodge and just barely avoided the bite of the last medusa. It whirled around and….it's eyes met his. Suddenly he couldn't move, and could feel his limbs stiffening as darkness rushed in and closed off all light….

Suddenly the light returned nearly blinding him as he collapsed forward and only just managed to catch himself.

"Sorry, that was a surprise to me too. Although…..your not good at listing to people are you?" The sound of _her _voice jerked Seto out of the half daze he had been in.

"What do you mean?" He snapped at Cassandra as he started to get to his feet.

"I told you not to look in their eyes didn't I?"

"So what if I did?" Seto paused when he realized that parts of his clothes where grey and stiff. He watched as the stone flaked off, pieces falling down the join the ones already scattered around the floor. "What is this?"

"I made a mistake, the medusa could turn people to stone." Cassandra turned and looked back toward the fireplace. "Whoever set that particular trap meant business."

"Do you really expect me to believe that I was turned to stone?" Seto asked innocuously.

"Yes. I did happen not matter what you want to think, and I don't believe your nearly as blind and stupid as you make yourself out to be." There was an almost audible snapping sound as the last of Seto's deserted him. He straightened up and lunged toward Cassandra before she could react. The millionaire grabbed a handful of her shirt and yanked her up to his eye level.

"I am getting tired of your attitude and s far as I can tell the only thing you've been doing is leading me around in circles since we go here. I'm still not entirely convinced that your not working with Reaper and now your keep insulting me. Give me one good reason why I shouldn't just kick your ass and leave you here while I go search though this godforsaken house on my own!"

"Let me go right now." Cassandra said quietly and glared at him. "I already said I'm not working for Reaper, whoever that is." She shifted slightly and slipped one hand in the pocket of her jeans.

"And besides right now I'm your only chance and getting into that basement."

"Then why in the world are you helping me?"

"Let go of me first." For a few seconds neither one moved then Seto growled and pushed Cassandra backwards, letting go of her as he did so.

"Now give me a good reason." He growled.

"Look even though you apparently believe that you are an invincible and don't need anyone, I don't really want to fight my way through this mansion by myself. At the very least you're a capable fighter and the two of use have a better chance at survival."

"Nice speech, but I don't buy that your helping just because I happen to be useful." Seto snorted. The young woman sighed.

"Look, I not sure you'll believe but I'm doing this because it's my duty to."

"Duty?" Seto raised an eyebrow.

"If there is someone trapped in here then it is my duty to get them to safety. If not, then I was sent here to see what happened to Grandfather's barrier. That means that if you have something to do with it then…" Eyes snapped beneath her glasses. "It's my duty to find out exactly what your doing."

"And if you manage to convince yourself that I'm this 'evil sorcerer' or whatever that dropped the barrier?"

"Then will have to make sure that you can't hurt anyone else. Although, like is said before, you don't have the aura of a magic user so I don't think you dropped the barrier yourself. But I still think you might have had something to do with it." Cassandra finished and meet his eyes.

"So basically, you don't trust me, but you don't want be wandering around by myself and this way you can keep an eye on me rather than having me wandering around by myself."

"Right." At the affirmation Seto smirked.

"Fine. I can live with that" He said shortly then the millionaire turned and walked out of the room. Cassandra started after him for half a second then picked up her weapon and hurried after.

Once outside in the corridor the two made good time to sealed door. As the reached it Seto suddenly stopped, then whirled around to glare at Cassandra.

"What is going on, wasn't the seal suppose to break?" He demanded. Cassandra peered around him and blinked. It was the same symbol from before, only now it was bright blue instead of purple.

"It should have broken." She said frowning. "And it did change colors, it was purple before." Cassandra glared at the symbol. Suddenly something occurred to her. "This is a two part seal. The one we destroyed was red so the other one should be…"

"Blue?" Seto finished for her. "Because red and blue make purple. " Cassandra nodded in reply. "Isn't magic suppose to be mysterious, not something so simple a child could figure out what to do?"

"It's not as simple as you seem to think. I doubt a child would be able to locate the key without looking through the whole mansion on foot. That's what you would be doing if I wasn't here."

"Then go ahead and find it already." Seto growled.

"I was just going to do that before someone interrupted." Cassandra snapped then stepped up and closed her eyes felt for the other key. "It's in the opposite direction, only this one is weaker, that's why I could find it at first." But the young woman found she was speaking to empty air. Seto had already started down the corridor.

It didn't take them very long to find the other door, it was the only room on that side of the house and there were surprisingly few monsters between them and it.

"Monsters are attracted to mystical power." Cassandra had supplied by way of explanation. "This key is weaker than the other one so it attracts less monsters."

"Really?" Seto drawled as he opened the door. Cassandra scowled as she pushed past him and into what had been a bed room. The key was in the middle of the room once again. The millionaire glanced around. "Will we have to fight those thing again?" He asked.

"Probably." Cassandra replied. "But tried not to get turned to stone again, I don't have anymore Imps Fangs."

"Imps what?" Seto looked at her in disbelief hoping he'd his heard, then turned around. "Never mind, I don't want to know." This time as he stepped down, the millionaire shut his eyes and wasn't blinded when the light went off. He opened his eyes just in time to see two Medusa slid out from under the bed.

"One for each of us, hmm?." Cassandra readied her weapon. "And remember what I said, if you get turned into a statue this time you'll have to stay that way." Seto snorted as the both rushed to attack.

The battle was short not it was only one on one and Seto remember how the other Medusas had fought. After both monsters where fading into mist Cassandra turned to look at him.

"Still alive?" She asked.

"Yes, now can we please get on with this?"

The two left the room and made their way back to the door. This time there was no rune on the door and Cassandra nodded.

"The seal for the door downstairs is in here, I can feel it now that there is no interference." She said as she opened the door. Inside was the library of the house. In the middle of the room a turquoise seal glowed.

"And there it is."

"Fine." Seto strode into the room and looked around quickly as he tried to spot find any where a monster could be using to hide. Surprisingly there was very little in the room aside from the bookshelves on the walls, while a few chairs that had seen better days were clustered around a large fire place. He looked back at Cassandra then glanced significantly at the fire place. She nodded and he turned back to the seal, closing his eyes as he scuffed his foot through the circle. As the explosion of light that was caused by the breaking of the spell faded, Seto opened his eyes, just in time to see something large drop down out of it. It crawled forward and Seto narrowed his eyes. It looked almost exactly like the Medusas they had been fighting only this one was much larger, once she was clear of the fireplace rearing up to a high close to Seto's. The scales on her body, the snakes on her head, and her eyes where all the bright red. Hissing in anger she coiled herself and lunged toward him.

Seto dodged out of the way and then lashed out at the gorgon launching her through the air and into a bookcase. The creatures slammed into the wooden shelves then fell heavily to the floor. Taking the opportunity Cassandra rushed forward and manage to cut the gorgon several times before it managed to get out of the way.

"What in the hell are you doing?" Seto's angry shout startled the young woman.

"Fighting, what does it look like?" She snapped back.

"I'm perfectly capable of taking care of one monster!"

"So says the only one of us who got turned stone."

"Just stay out of this one." Seto growled and went back to his fight. Cassandra sighed and then stepped back and watched from the side of the room. The fight continued on for the next minuet or so until Seto somehow managed to kick the gorgon toward her. Thinking quickly she brought her naginata up and the monster was impaled on the blade. As it died Seto just stood staring at the young woman.

"What?" She asked eyebrow raised. The millionaire cursed under his breath then stalked past her and out of the room. Cassandra sighed then followed.

When they reached the door that lead to the basement the symbol had already faded away entirely. Remembering his past experiences with the door Seto placed his hand on the door knob carefully. When no shock came from it he grasped it more firmly and opened the door. It swung open with a screech of rusty hinges to revel a decrepit wooden stair case that lead down. Although Seto had half expected it to end in darkness he could actually see a faint glow coming from the base of the stair case. Frowning the millionaire started down, ignoring the young woman who followed him down.

"Who's this person that your so desperate up to find anyway? Your girlfriend?" Cassandra asked but received only silence as her answer. As they duo reached the bottom of the stairs Seto stopped to look around and froze the blood draining from his face. The stairs ended in a large basement with a dirt floor and various decrepit pieces of furniture scattered around, but what

"Mokuba!" He cried and sprinted to where his brother was sitting, surrounded by dome of softy glowing sickly green light. As Seto reached the dome Mokuba glanced up and saw his brother. Grinning he stood up and started forward only to stumble back when a length of what looked like lighting struck him and knocked him backwards.

"Mokuba, are you alright?" Seto paused uncertainly before dome, having experienced both the power that was on the door and seeing what this dome could too he was certain what he to do. Then he noticed that Mokuba hadn't moved from where he had fallen. Alarmed Seto reached forward and touched the barrier, ignoring both his common sense and Cassandra's warning shout. As his fingers encountered the barrier it…popped. At least that was what it seemed like the dome did, it just vanished with a faint pop like a soap bubble. Not willing to question his good fortune Seto dropped down to his knees and reached toward his brothers prone form.

"Mokuba?" He touched his brothers shoulder gently. He stirred then looked up at blinking slowly.

"Seto?" His younger brother asked uncertainly.

"It's me." Seto confirmed. Mokuba twisted and lunged at his brother, hugging him tighly for a few seconds. For a second Seto Kaiba was surprised, then he gave his brother a quick squeeze in return before letting go and pushing him away.

"Are you alright?" He asked concerned when he noticed how paled his little brother was.

"I'm fine, when I woke up I was already inside there. Some monsters kept coming down here and trying to get in but they would get zapped and then stop for awhile." Mokuba said a forcefully cheerful tone even as his voice shook slightly, then gave a strained smile. "But a little bit ago they all left for some reason, so I was left alone."

"So that was why you where in such a hurry was in here." Seto had forgotten about Cassandra until now. He stood up looked back to see that the young woman was still standing . "Why wouldn't you tell me who you were trying to save?"

"Would you have believed me?" Seto asked.

"Probably not." Cassandra admitted. "But I would have at least thought twice about you."

"So?" Seto snorted.

"Seto, who's she?" Mokuba asked. Seto tried to think of a good way to answer.

"Cassandra." He said after a few seconds. "And she was helping me, although I still don't know why."

"I told you, it's my duty." Cassandra started to walk a forward she was half way across the room when a flash of crimson light came from behind her. She dropped into forward roll and landed on her feet, spinning around to meet the threat behind her. Seto caught a glimpse of the figure that had just arrived and shoved Mokuba behind him.

"What in the hell are you doing here bastard?" Seto snapped. "I beat your sick little game, now leave us alone." Reaper just smiled at the outburst.

"So you did, well done indeed." The pale man smiled. "Although you almost didn't make it you know. If it had been a monster instead of you that had toughed the barrier a moment ago I am afraid that young Mokuba here would be dead." Behind him Seto felt his brother move closer to him.

"Shut the hell up." He growled at Reaper. "Just what do you want with us?"

"Not us, Seto, YOU." Reaper smiled that same malicious grin the elder Kaiba had seen once before. "And you already know why."

"And I already told YOU that I don't by into your little fantasy world." Seto shifted his weight. "I'm not a harmonizer or whatever you said I was before."

"Harmonixer, Seto and deny it all you want, you can't change reality. I had thought that the sight of the creatures in this building would convince you, but you are even more stubborn than your father was." Reaper raised both hands above his head. Crimson light began to gather in them. "Now then….I will have to do this the hard way."

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Off to the side Cassandra stood half in shadow , eyes focused on the three people who where ignoring her. Up until they had walked down those stairs a part of her mind had remained unconvinced of her companions innocence, despite his seeming lack of any type of power and absolute ignorance of magic. Those things could be faked after all. But this sorcerer, Kaiba had called him Reaper, was far more powerful than even her grandfather and certainly had enough power and knowledge to shatter the barrier. Besides…..she could feel the malice leaking off him. Not just the threat but the concentration of negative emotions he was pulling in from the building and using to fuel his spell. Reaching into her jean pocket Cassandra closed her hand over a hard flat shape, then hesitated.

Up until now the sorcerer hadn't even noticed her, and if she just remained quite he might leave with out noticing her at all. After all, hadn't she already disobeyed Grandfather enough as it was? Her assignment had been only to found out who or what had broken he barrier and she had certainly done that! Besides she didn't have a snowballs chance in hell of defeating someone this powerful……. _Ger a grip Cassandra, it is not like you to give in to your fears so easily_! _It's your duty to try and stop him isn't it? This is what you have been training for all your life isn't it? _But fear held her still, she couldn't move even if she had wanted to. _I really don't want to die here…._ Kept running through here head. But then suddenly a newer voice spoke up in her mind.

_What will Grandfather think if he find out you did nothing? _

At that last though the young woman shoved all her fears and insecurities to the back of her mind and pulled the Crest out of her pocket. It was her duty to do something about this, even if all her common sense was telling her to back off. Focusing all her will on the small device in her hand she focused her mind on Reaper and unleashed all of the crest's magic on him.

"RED RAVE!"

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The shout caught everyone else in surprise and Seto took a step back as a shot column of flame seemed to materialize around Reaper, spinning for a few seconds before fading away, leaving the man's clothes scorched, although he was otherwise unharmed. Reaper turned and raised an eyebrow at the young woman crouched in the corner.

"So, there was someone else here. And someone who has managed to get their hands on a crest no less. Who are you girl?" The sorcerer asked. Seto had turned to look at Cassandra as well. He had lost track of the young woman after Reapers entrance and had forgotten she was still in the room. He stared at the young woman trying to figure out exactly what she had done. Meanwhile Cassandra spoke up.

"I am not going to answer that." She said and stood carefully, weapon still pointed at the sorcerer. Reaper raised his other eyebrow in response.

"Really?" He asked then stared at her some more. Slowly a cruel smile spread itself across his face. "Ahh…so you can work magic can you?" Cassandra didn't respond. "And here I was wonder how Seto managed to get though my wards so quickly. I didn't think he would be able to make it before the barrier failed."

"You bastard!" Although the first thing on Seto's mind was to beat Reaper into a blood pulp he didn't attack. He remember what had happened back home and the thought of the bruises he had received made him cautious. "What in the hell do you want?"

"I want to know if you really are Kai's son, Seto. But because you refuse to oblige me on that subject I am forced to take these extreme measures." Reaper stopped and looked around. Once again that malicious smile returned to his face. "And on that note I believe I shall leave."

"What?" Seto said, disbelief on his face. "You drag my little brother down here, threaten to kill him, try to kill me and then just leave?"

"Oh, don't worry Seto. I shall leave you a little parting gift." The sorcerer held his hand out and the crimson light that had vanished when Cassandra's attack hit him reappeared. Almost carelessly Reaper opened his hand and let the small globe fall. The globe reached the ground and was absorbed into it, disappearing with red flash. Almost immediately the ground around where the globe had vanished began to glow bright red. The glow spread out until a glowing circle nearly ten feet in diameter covered the floor. Suddenly the floor began to shake and the glow began to pulse erratically as Reaper smiled, then disappeared in another flash of crimson light.

Seto staggered a little as the quake intensified.

"Lets get out of here!" Cassandra yelled over the rumbling of the earth. Seto gave a curt nod and gabbed reached back to grab Mokuba's hand, just as the earth exploded. The millionaire dropped to the ground, yanking Mokuba down with him as small rocks rained down around them. An unearthly shriek echoed around the basement as the dust began to clear. He looked up and froze, horrified by the creature in front of him.

It had been a woman at some point, or at least it looked vaguely like a woman from the waist up, but from the creatures waist crew six massive snake heads each hissing and staring at the three people with blood red eyes. The woman's body sat at the center of the mass of coils and she was the one screaming in rage. Her eyes scanned the basement for several seconds then her eyes, as red as those of her snakes fastened on Seto. One of the snake heads lunged towards him, and he pushed Mokuba back out of the way, just barely managing to dodge before it snapped shut right where he had been standing.

"Mokuba, keep out of the way!" He yelled. Out of the corner of his eye Seto saw Mokuba duck behind a table that was laying on it's side near the wall. The old piece of furniture would provide nearly no protection if the snake heads decided to attack head on, so he had to keep their attention on him, rather than the more defenseless prey. A shriek rang out one of the other heads screamed and pulled back, black blood oozing from a wound made by Cassandra's Naginata. The other heads hissed in rage and one lunged at Seto. He managed to score a hit on it, causing the head to retreat but winced as he did so. His knuckles were bleeding and sore after so much fighting and smacking around a creature covered in scales really helping.

Another head lunged at him and he kicked it back, whirling around so he could get closer to the body.

"Get back!" Cassandra's cry startled him and a head slammed into him, knocking him backwards.

"What?" He shouted back at her. "You can't fight this thing by yourself!"

"I need to try something!" The young woman dodged and slashed with her naginata, drawing blood on the monster. "And I don't want you getting in the way by accident!" For a second Kaiba paused then he back out of the fight. Something told him that he did not want to be in the middle of whatever it was Cassandra was planning.

Cassandra glanced his way then nodded to herself before bringing her naginata up in front of her. Immediately the blade began to glow with a greenish light. The young woman slashed the blade through the air five times and each time a glowing line appeared. A pentagram winked into life as Cassandra chanted softly under her breath then jabbed the blade of her weapon into the earth with a shout..

"ROCK SPEAR!" As the cry faded massive spires of rock sprang up from the ground around the monster, skewering it and drawing blood. The snake woman screamed as the rock spears crumbled leaving no sign of themselves behind. For several heartbeats the combatants remained frozen, waiting to see if the enemy had fallen to the attack, then the snake woman screamed and redoubled her own efforts. Two of the snake heads had died from the damaged the spell had inflicted and after a few more minuets Seto and Cassandra had managed to account for a snake head apiece. Now with half the head defeated Seto was beginning to think that they might have a chance of winning the fight. Unfortunately, although he wouldn't admit it to anyone, he was tired, very tried and wasn't sure how much longer he would be able to fight. His knuckles were bloody from constant impact and he was fatigued from both this fight and the ones that had come before. He really wasn't sure how much longer he was going to be able to hold out. Seto glanced back toward the table and saw Mokuba peeking around the edge of the table. The millionaire hardened his resolve. He would not let that thing get to his little brother.

Seto turned to meet the next attack, then realized that there wasn't one. For some reason the snake woman had pulled all the heads back towards her body. After she didn't move from her position for half a minuet leaving Seto feeling a confusion of worry, relief and hope. Although this gave him a chance to catch his breath and rest (although he wasn't showing it) he was sure that the creature was planning something, even if a very small party of his mind was hoping that she would just give up and go away. Out of the corner of his eyes he noticed Cassandra cautiously edging toward him, her eyes still on the monster.

"What's it doing?" He snapped in her direction being very careful to keep his voice low.

"I have no idea." Was the answers. Seto snorted.

"Aren't you suppose to the mighty knowledgeable sorceress who knows everything about monsters?"

"I never claimed to know everything! I just said I know more than you do." Seto opened his mouth to reply but stopped when he noticed that the snake woman was gesturing, green light flowing from her hands. Cassandra's eyes widened behind her glasses. "DOWN!" The young woman shouted as she suited action to words. Without really thinking about it Seto threw himself flat too just as several long spears of rock materialized in front of the snake woman flew over his head to embed themselves in the wall behind him. Seto twisted and started in horror at the rock that had pierced the top of the table his brother had taken shelter behind.

"Mokuba!" He shouted and started toward his brother, forgetting about the enemy behind him for less than a second. But less than a second was all it took for the snake woman to decide to attack again. She lashed out with one of her snake heads, the side of one of the heads catching him and throwing them against the wall. Seto lay their for a second stunned, but he sight of a snake lunging for him mouth opened gave him enough dodge. As he moved Seto noted with some relife that Mokuba had apparently responded to Cassandra's earlier shout as well and thrown himself on the ground behind his shelter as the snake woman attacked. The spear had missed him totally.

The snake lunged toward Seto again as he tried to right himself and he was only just able to get out of the way. Seto hissed and clapped one hand to his left arm when he relized that he hadn't gotten out of the way in time. The snake had clipped him as it went passed and wounded him. _I'm slowing down. _ The millionaire thought grimly. _ I am not going to be able to keep this up much longer. _ Out of the corner of his eye he noticed that Cassandra was showing the strain as will. _Dammit, if they take her down they'll all come after me. _ He eyed the monster. _I could take her out if they weren't coming after me all at once. Damn bitch keeps sending them after us two at a time. I'm barely holding my own as it is, if she manages to take out Cassandra before she kills both of those things than I'm not sure if I'll be able to hold out. _ At that movement the snake woman decided to send another rain of rock spears toward him. Seto managed to roll of out of the way but he saw with some alarm that one had come dangerously close to hitting Mokuba. His brother looked up and meet Seto's eyes for a half a second as the elder Kaiba realized something.

If Cassandra fell, there was no guarantee that Mokuba would remain safe. So the monsters attention was focused on the two people who where causing it pain, but if one died then it would have space to look around, and with only one of them it might discover the weaker human hiding behind the frail wooden barrier….. The monster would even half to be actively searching. All it would take would be a random attack that missed and uncovered the boy or even worse one that hit Mokuba instead of the intended target. Seto growled. He could afford to mess up now. He had to win, **_he had to._ **

Suddenly at the back of his mind Seto felt something familiar. A feeling of ice and coolness appeared reminding him of what had happened last time. It almost felt as if the ice was asking him to use, to wield it again. _But last time…._ For a second he saw a dragon creature that stood on two legs looking back at him in his minds eye. Then he shook his head and snorted. _Listen to your self Seto Kaiba. Scared of something that isn't real, can't possible be real. _Almost attentively he 'reached' toward the coldness. _I will not be afraid of my imagination! _ He let the ice fill his veins once more.

As the ice flowed through him immense pain racked his body as a bright light blinded him. Seto didn't see the attack coming towards him but he felt it. Almost instinctively he jumped…and ended up much farther away that he should have. Disbelieving Seto stared down at his own hands, hands that were now webbed and had claws instead of fingernails, hands that were covered in blue scales. Part of him wanted to scream and panic, try to deny that all this was happening, but when the monster screamed in anger Seto focused. Part of the reason he was such a good duelist was his ability to push panic and fear to the back of his mind during a duel. Now as he watched the snake head bearing down on him he pushed the fear to the back of his mind and focused on the battle instead.

As the snake lunged toward him he dodged then turned and kicked it as hard as he could. Somehow with the transformation in full affect he didn't seem as exhausted as he had been before and could feel almost all of his strength back. With a hiss of pain the snake slammed into the wall and lay their stunned. He turned as another bore down on him and flipped over his one then turned and attack, driving it back wards as the other one recovered. This time he felt it dive at him and ducked, before turning and lashing out with the claws on his hand, leaving bloody furrow on the snakes scales. As the other one lunged to attack him he dodged then glanced toward the woman. She gestured and the both snakes lunged at him. Seto smiled, or at least tired to since dragons really can't smile, then flipped over one snake head and landed on it, then turned and ran the short distance up it to the main body. Seeing what he was up to the snake woman gestured and sent another wave of stone spikes at him. He dodged them easily and then smirked when one hit the snake he was running on killing it. He jumped the last few feet and landed right in front of the half woman who seemed stunned. Suddenly, moving more by instinct, he pulled back and then pushed them out-front at the same he reached out and pushed the ice he felt flowing through is mind at her as well. A jet of pure cold flowed from his hands and hit her body forming ice where ever it touched . As she screamed in agony Seto reared back and then landed a launch a punch toward her face. It connected….hitting her face and then going right through her head. As Seto stared at his arm in both shock and disgust then monster convulsed one, then seemed to explode into a bright red light. As it disappeared as completely as the medusa's had before Seto fell, hitting the ground awkwardly, landing on all fours.

As he crouched their staring down at his hands the fear that Seto had been suppressing came back to the surface. _This isn't me and can't be this…this…monster…Reaper can't be right. _ Frantically Seto tried to remember how he had changed back. _I don't want to be this, this isn't me, I'm Seto Kaiba! _An image of what he saw in the mirror each day popped into his head, and then the pain and the bright light returned as the warmth filled him and the ice retreated. As the light faded Seto trembled, suddenly far warmer and far more exhausted then he had been previously. Trembling slightly from the exhaustion Seto turned and meet the stunned gazes of the other two in the room.

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Done at laaaaaaaast!

First I'll thank my reviewers:

_Unloved-Dragon-Authoress_, thanks very muchfor the compliment! There, I countiued it, see?

_Ash Kaiba_, Thank you! A Harmonixers is from the game _Shadow Hearts, _ and is basically someone who can fuse with various elemental spirits to turn into a monster. All explain more about it in the next chapter.

Now for all of you who have played Shadow Hearts, please do! It's an RPG for the PS2 and in my opinion is one of the most over looked games ever. Shadow Hearts is one my favorite series ever and I highly recommend it to anyone who plays video games.

Besides it's the only game I've ever played were the hero tells someone he saved them because the voices in his head told him to. XD.

Anyway, please Read and Review,

-Plantress

PS: Okay I have no excuse for the title, but the trailer for Snakes of a Plane came on the TV right when I was trying to think of something to call the chapter. It just seemed natural to call it that.


	4. Wolf

-1I do not own Yu-gi-oh or Shadow Hearts. I don't own any of the characters except Cassandra either.

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**Shadow Dragon**

_Chapter Four: Wolf_

Cassandra crouched frozen, staring at the young man who had just defeated the enemy they had been struggling so hard against.

She hadn't known what was happening at first. Exhausted, both physically and magically, she hadn't even been sure she would get out of here alive. All that had been in her mind was the fact that Grandfather had been right and that she really did not want to die. Then suddenly there had been a bright flash of light and a shout of pain from the direction she had last seen her companion. She had pushed back one of the snake heads, then glanced over afraid that the snake woman had hit him with a spell….only to see something jump out of the way. Something that landed hard and crouched there for several seconds. As the smoke clear Cassandra felt her heart skip a beat. A blue lizard-thing was crouched there, studying it's hands. Then the snake-woman had attacked again. At first she feared the lizard-thing was an enemy, but when it charged the monster she paused. She didn't let herself relax or drop her guard, but took the time to catch her breath. Slowly she began to edge around to where she had last seen her companion. When she neared the spot where she had last seen him she spotted his younger brother peaking out from behind the table that was serving as his shield. As the snake woman collapsed the lizard dropped to the ground. There was a flash of light and then _he _was there. The guy that had been following her though the entire mansion, Kaiba.

A second or two passed as she stared at him. Her trance was broken only when she felt Mokuba sprint past her. Almost automatically her hand shot out and grabbed onto the boys wrist. He turned and glared at her.

"What are you doing?" She hissed at him. "He's dangerous, he's a….."

"He's my brother, and he just saved your lie!" Mokuba snapped at her. Startled she loosened her grip slightly and he pulled away from her, running to where his brother was.

"Seto, are you alright?" The boy. Kaiba nodded and stood up, slowly. Cassandra watched him alarmed, then switched to a defensive position.

"What kind of monster are you?" She asked glaring at Kaiba.

"My brother isn't a monster!" Mokuba yelled back at her, but his brother grabbed his shoulder.

"Quiet it Mokuba." He turned and matched her glare. He noticed her position and smirked.

"What are you going to do with that, attack me?" He asked. "Your just as exhausted as I am. You couldn't win against me now."

"Say's who?" Cassandra snapped back at him, then switched her stance to a more offensive one. But when she moved so did Mokuba, placing himself between her and his brother. She paused and swore internally. Now there was now way for her to get to that monster without going through Mokuba. She stood down and glared at him.

"Your not going to hide from me." She said.

"I never hide." Kaiba snapped at her. "Come on Mokuba we're leaving." The brothers turned and started to make their way up the stairs.

"Wait!" Cassandra yelled and tried to go after them, but a way of dizziness struck her and she stopped. Hurts and exhausted that had been partially held at bay by adrenalin now returned and she was forced to sit down to regain her strength. After she had eaten several of the herbs her grandfather had given her before she left, Cassandra felt better. However by the time she managed to leave the mansion the brothers were long gone.

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Seto wasn't sure when they got home. He vaguely remember calling someone to come pick them up but the ride back was hidden behind a haze of exhaustion. Truthfully he was glad he was so tired. If he wasn't then he would have to think about what had happened back there. Wouldn't have to think about what he had done….what he had become. But that couldn't have been real could it? People just didn't turn into monsters….creatures out of legends….did they? Cassandra's question rang in his head as he stumbled to his bed, hardly ware of Mokuba supporting him. He wasn't a monster. He _wasn't _a monster. There was no way…..with those thoughts in mind, Seto Kaiba drifted off into an exhausted slumber.

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The next morning Mokuba went downstairs to find his brother already eating breakfast. For a few seconds the younger Kaiba hesitated then joined his brother. All through the meal he kept an eye on Seto. Last night he hadn't been able to sleep well and Mokuba thought that if he had been so tired, exhausted from a combination of nerves and fear, he wouldn't have been able to sleep because of the nightmares. But now he wanted to talk to his brother and ask him about what had happened.

"Seto?" He asked tentatively as his brother stood up. Seto turned and looked over at him. "Yesterday…what happened to you? How did you do that? What was…."

"I don't want to talk about it Mokuba!" Seto snapped at his brother causing Mokuba to flinch. The elder Kaiba felt guilt when he saw his brothers reaction and then sighed. "Just don't mention that to me again, alright? What ever happened back there is over and done with. We don't have to thing about it anymore" Mutely Mokuba nodded and watched his brother walk away. Although he wasn't scared of his brother and firmly believed that there was no way he could be a monster, Mokuba was too smart to dismiss to ignore what had happened yesterday.

And besides….Seto had looked almost scared when he had turned back yesterday and that was something that had Mokuba worried. His brother was not scared of anything or anyone….although Mokuba guessed that what had happened yesterday was enough of freak out the strongest person. As the younger Kaiba watched his brother exit the room he wondered how he could get his brother to talk to him. Although he couldn't say way, Mokuba felt that ignoring what had happened yesterday was a very bad idea.

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A little over a week after they had returned from the mansion, Seto was working at home. He noted the sound of the door opening but didn't say anything until Mokuba's voice entered his ears.

"Uhhh….Big brother?" Seto looked up from his work. His younger brother was standing in the doorway to the office, on hand still on the door handle.

"Mokuba, what did you do now?" He asked. The only time Mokuba's voice was _that _hesitant was when he had done something he wasn't sure his older brother would approve of.

"I didn't do anything exactly…..it's just that…." Before Mokuba could finish his sentence something white poked it's head around the doorframe and stared into the room.

"What is that thing?" The white thing, Seto realized it was a large dog of some kind, laid it's ears back at the harsh tones and moved closer to Mokuba.

"Well….it followed me home."

"Followed you home?" If it had been anyone else that had said that then Seto would have snorted and told them to get rid of the beast. But Mokuba wasn't known to lie…least of all to him. "It followed you home for no reason at all?" Seto was trying to keep the sarcasm out of his voice although it was hard. The excuse had just sounded so clichéd. If his younger brother noticed anything odd in his voice he ignored it and nodded instead.

"He was wandering around by the park a couple of days ago when he saw me and he just started to follow me. I've tried to get him to go away but every time I go out the main gate he's there waiting for me. I don't think that he has anywhere else to go Seto." Mokuba looked up at his elder brother pleadingly. "So can I keep him, Seto? I don' want to leave him alone." For several seconds Seto's gaze switched from his brother to the dog and back again. It's not like it would be a problem to keep a dog in the house, he didn't like them very much. They reminded him to much of that human mutt that followed Yugi around….but then again this was Mokuba asking and his little brother rarely asked him for something….. And he did owe Mokuba for letting Reaper lay his filthy hands on him so…

"Alright, you can keep him, but you're the one taking care of him. Just keep it out of my way." He turned his attention back to his work. "And the first time that thing chews up the furniture or makes a mess, it's gone."

"Alright. Thank you Seto." Mokuba said happily. "Come on Blanca." As the dog followed it's new master out of his office, Seto wondered why Mokuba had chosen that name. Then he pushed to the back of his mind and promptly forgot about it.

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Over the last week Seto had gotten used to the sight of the mutt following his brother around the house. At some point in the first few days after it's arrival Mokuba apparently bought it a spiked collar and although Seto thought it looked ridiculous and even the dog itself didn't seem to happy about it, he didn't say anything. After all it was his fault that Mokuba had been put in danger and even though his brother hadn't said anything about them, Seto knew he was having nightmares. After he had gotten a pet, it must have taken his mind off things since he seemed to sleeping better. That alone was enough for Seto put up with the animal. It seemed to be well behaved too, he hadn't had any complaints from the staff about it chewing up fortitude or leaving…other…messes behind. He began to wonder if it was really someone's lost pet and if they should look for its' owners, but then he dismissed it from his mind. If it was a lost pet then it was it's former owners fault for failing to take care of it, not is problem. The only thing that made Seto pause was the fact the there was no money from the household account to buy any sort of dog food. Then he though about it and realized that Mokuba was probably just taking his words seriously and using his own allowance to buy food for his pet. Pleased with his brothers responsibly Seto didn't' say anything.

_Although _ Seto thought as he drifted off to sleep. _maybe I shouldn't make him do that. It he is showing that he's that responsible then I guess I should reward him some how_.

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When Seto woke up again he wasn't in his bed anymore. He knew that before he even opened his eyes. The surface he was now laying one was cold and unyielding. _Why in the hell am I laying on the floor? Did I roll out of the bed or something? _Annoyed and a little embarrassed the millionaire opened sat up, not as he did so the seemed to wearing the clothes he had changed out of before going to bed and then opened his eyes. .He then froze and tried to ignore the panic that had surfaced. Not only was he not in his bed, he wasn't even in his bedroom anymore! And what was most frightening to him, although he would never let anyone see how scared he was or even admit it to himself, was he knew this place. A courtyard floating I the middle of a grey fog, two doors at either end….this was the place he had first felt the power of the ice. For half a second he was frozen by fear and uncertainty but then his personality reasserted itself.

"I went to bed. This is just a dream brought on by stress." He muttered half to himself.

"A dream is it?" A voice cackled behind him. "I had forgotten how amusing humans could be."

"They are very amusing!" Another, _strange, _ voice called. "Humans will do anything to avoid the truth won't they?"

"Who's there?" Seto growled and twisted around to see behind him. There was a new addition to his dreamscape. Another door had appeared. It stood on the side of the courtyard opposite the gate he had come in what had previously been empty space. The door itself was unremarkable compared to the other two, it was just a heavy iron affair studded with spikes and free of ornamentation. But hovering on either side of it were four glowing things.

"Oh look, he noticed us at last." One of the things spoke. It looked vaguely like mask that was shaped like a fish head, only it was glowing blue and hovering several feet off the ground on the right side of the door. As he watched it turned to look at him. Blue fire burned in the holes where a persons eyes would go while the same colored fire seemed to surrounded it. Slowly Seto stood keeping his eyes on the mask.

"So your finally back. What took you so long Harmonixer?" Seto switched gaze to the mask that had just spoken then glared at it. This one was hovering the left side of the door at a higher level than the other one, it looked like a golden mask made to vaguely resemble a bird head. Several long and sharp ornaments decorated the back of the in what looked like a cross between a suns rays and feathers.

"What in the hell are you going on about?" He snapped at it. Seto was getting tired of feeling like people were talking about something that he didn't know about, it made him feel stupid. Usual he was the one explaining things to people who were less intelligent than him, and he was finding out he did not like the roll reversal.

"Maybe he doesn't know how to get to the Graveyard?" Another voice said. This time the speaker was a red mask hovering just under the golden one. It looked like little more than a square with round eyes and two horns sticking up from the top two corners. Halfway down it was split in two and the halves appeared to be held together by little more than the red light that surrounded it, although it appeared to talk just fine.

"So he doesn't even know how to access something that exits within his on soul!? He can't be that stupid." Another glowing mask thing spoke up, this one floating above the blue one who had first spoken to him. It looked like a lion mask surrounded by green fire. Seto growled.

"Look, I don't care were this is I am not going to be insulted by a bunch of floating masks!" Seto took a step towards the door.

"And what are you planning on doing to us?" The golden one spoke up. "Challenge us in a Shadow Game? That is the only way to be rid of us and if I remember correctly, your record with those is despairing." A soft growl forced it's way from the harmonixer's throat. Although he did not know exactly what had happened to him during those times when the he had been trapped in the darkness, those times had caused dreams that he still woke up in a cold sweat from. He could never remember the nightmares either but for some reason he had the feeling he did not want to remember them and that is what annoyed him. Seto Kaiba was not suppose to be afraid of dreams and nightmares that didn't exist…..things like that just weren't suppose to happen right. But then he shoved those thoughts to the back of his mind.

"How in the hell do you know about that!?" He demanded. All of them laughed and then the blue one spoke up.

"You really don't get it do you boy?" It asked. "We are you, or at least the less tasteful parts of you."

"What do you mean by that?" Seto growled. The red one chuckled.

"So you don't know? We, little Harmonixer, represent your repressed desires. Your fears, your greed, your violent desiers and ….." This time Seto could have sworn you it grinned even wider, if that was at all possible. "your pride."

"In short, Harmonixer, we are the dark parts of your soul." The lion mask took over . "The shadows that exist within all humans. That little boy with the millennium puzzle attempted to drive us out. He did manage to diminish are power, but.."

"But you can't be rid of part of yourself just like that." The bird finished. "We show you the truth of your soul. And you, who can't even accept what you _are _ will never be able to get rid of us!" The masks sent of a course of cackling laughs. Seto twitched, annoyed at all of them.

"Just who do you think you are?" He growled. "Even if this is a dream, I'm not going to stand here and be insulted by a bunch of party masks. Shut up _now!"_

"Why don't you make us?" The blue mask suggested.

"Unless your to scared too." The red mask added. Seto didn't say anything. He just started forward. This was his dream ands he was not going to be insulted. He would teach these _things _what it meant to challenge Seto Kaiba. Seto took a step forward.

"STOP!" The voice rang through the area and Seto froze involuntarily. He growled and looked back over his shoulder to see who had dared to interpret him. Standing behind him breathing heavily was a familiar large white shape. Seto blinked when he saw Blanca then raised an eyebrow at Blanca before h turned back around. The sight of his brothers dog confirmed that this was all just some realistic, idiotic, dream. He had even been thinking about the dog right before he fell asleep.

"You do not want to fight them now." It was the same voice that shouted a few minuets before. This time Seto whipped around to stare around the landscape. He saw no one save for Blanca. Almost as if reading the disbelieving thoughts that flowed through his mind, the dog raised its paw.

"Down here." He said. The sight of a talking dog might have startled before but because this was clearly a dream, Seto just accepted him. The harmonixer turned around.

"Your not listening to me are you?" There was a click of nails on stone and then a white blur past his legs and then stopped on the path right in front of him. Blanca looked back at the masks and then back at Seto.

"I told you to stop." Was all the dog said.

"What in the hell are you doing?" Seto snapped. Blanca looked at him impassively.

"Stopping you from making a very bad mistake. Your challenge something you have no idea of the power of." Having heard all of that before, Seto shrugged him off.

"I don't care." Seto growled and was promptly ignored. Blanca had shifted so that he could see both Seto and the Masks at the same time.

"They are the Grail, Sword, Staff and Golden masks." He said as if Seto hadn't said anything. At each name Blanca would glance at one of them. Blue, Gold, Red and Green all seemed to glare as Blanca listed their names. "They are the formed from malice, from negative energy and they exist within all humans." Blanca glared back at the masks. "Since you however are a harmonixer, they can take a much more active and _deadly _role."

"Please don't tell me that your going to start spouting the harmonixer nonsense." Seto snorted, then turned back toward the masks.

"What are you doing?"

"What does it look like? I don't care what those masks or whatever you called them are. I am not going to let them disrespect me."

"_Don't_." Blanca's reply was said so forcefully that even Seto stopped for a second. "I don't care what they have done to you. _Do not fight them. _ They are not something you can defeat like that."

"I'm suppose to do what then? Sit here and let them insult me?" The millionaire asked.

"So your actually listening to their taunts and responding to them like a weak willed child?" Blanca snorted. "I thought you would be stronger than that."

"What!?" Seto glared at the dog. "Weak willed!?" Suddenly the millionaire was furious. No one, not even his enemies had called him that before. That his dog would dare say that he was weak willed when he had found home for Mokuba and himself, had drove though the changes in policy for the Kaiba Corporation and reshaped all though his own will was infuriating to him.

"Yes, weak willed. Your listening to the masks and doing exactly what they want you to do." Blanca glared at them. "They want your soul Seto, but they can't take it unless you let them. The masks sole purpose for existing is to break humans. They can't move in the real world and they have to make you come to them. So they sit there, taunting you, saying the words that the know will make you enraged so that they can take you." Blanca turned and looked at him. "A truly strong person can ignore their teasing and walk away. But if you want to act like a child then go ahead, challenge them. As you are now they will defeat you."

"Defeat me? You don't know how many of my enemies have tried dog. I don't run away from anything or anyone." Seto snapped at him.

"Who said anything about running away?" Blanca stretched and glanced at Seto. "I just said you should ignore the masks." The dog cocked his head as he studied the masks. "I won't stop you if you want to challenge them, although that their will is stronger than you own."

"What!?" Ignoring Seto's outburst the dog turned and began to walk away.

"If you want your question answered than follow me, If not than stay here and argue with them. It's your choice." With that Blanca walked over to the heavens door. As it opened the dog gave him one last glance then went through.

"What are you going to do?" One of the masks called from behind him. "Fight us, or run away like your doggy friend did with your tail between your legs." Seto started to respond but then Blanca's words rang though his mind and he realized that like Pegasus, they were trying to goad him into responding. Annoyed with himself for not realizing it sooner he turned and glared at them.

"Shut the hell up." He growled and after half a seconds hesitation went through the Heavens door.

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Inside was and exact duplica of the what was through Hells Door, an open space surround by three doors with different symbols on them. Seated in the middle of the open space was Blanca.

"Seto you are a harmonixer and as the masks said, your life is not going to be easy." He said as soon as Seto came through the door.

"My life has never been easy." Seto snapped. "Now tell me what a harmonixer is mutt. I've been called that by Reaper, those masks, and now you. Tell me what you think I am!"

" I'm not a mutt, I'm a full blooded wolf and I don't like to be insulted." The wolf grumbled then looked up at Seto. After seeing that there would be no apology forth coming he sighed.. "To answer your question….in the most simple terms a Harmonixer is some who can fuse with various spirits to take one their form and powers."

"That's it!" Seto glared at the dog. "Both you and Reaper seem to be under the delusion that I'm some type of Duel Monster or something. What makes you think I can!?"

"You already have, haven't you?" Was the calm reply. Seto stared flashes of the two times he had transformed running though his mind. "I don't' know much about your card game or what it means there" Blanca continued. "But I do know that you are a Harmonixer. And a very special one too. You have more than one fusion soul available to you."

"Fusion Soul?"

"The monster spirits that you are able to fuse with" Was the impatient reply. "Most Harmonixers are born with ability to control only one fusioin soul. You however can control many."

"It's nice the at you know exactly what I'm capable of. How do I get this

"Look around you" Blanca nodded to the various doors. "Each of these represent a spirit that was sealed in your soul. You've already unlocked one, but if I remember right there should be more spirits through the door of heaven.."

"So basically your saying that I have a bunch monsters running around inside my head. And I haven't heard of this before now because….?"

"They aren't running around in your soul. They are sealed up until you choose to release them and gain their power. A harmonixers' power is primarily ruled by emotions, so unless you have a sudden breakdown, the power from the fusion souls will only answer when you wanted."

"Until I choose to release them? So I get to deiced if I want to use them or not, and I can just leave them here and pretend that no of this every happened."

"Well I guess…" Blanca said uncertainly. The wolf really didn't like the direction the discussion was taking.

"So I don't have to be a harmonixer unless I want to?"

"Yes, if that's really what you want." Blanca looked up and meet Seto's eyes. "And is that _really _what you want?" For a second the harmonixer hesitated. Then he glared at the wolf, and seemed to draw himself up higher.

"Listen mutt,I don't like the fact that you and just about everyone I've had the misfortune to run into lately has suddenly deiced that they are going to tell me exactly what I am and what I'm suppose to be doing, I was getting along perfectly fine before all this shit happened and I will continue to do so. I don't need some deluded psycopath and a talking dog to tell how to run my life! I'll track down that bastard Tucker and that nutcase Reaper, and then this whole thing will be over and I can get back to my life!"

"So you'll ignore everything that you have just learned and chase after an enemy that you have no hope of defeating?" Blanca snarled. "For some said to be so smart you are acting very stupid." Seto bristled at the wolfs tone.

"Look _wolf _I don't care if this is a dream or even if this is somewhere in my soul, either way means I don't have to hang around here." Seto turned to leave but was stopped by streak of white that ran past him and planted itself in front of the door. "Out of my way _mutt._"

"Make me." Blanca growled. "I will not let you through until you realize the full implications of what you are trying to do. If you want to leave you will have to go through me." Seto laughed.

"I'm not scared of the big bad wolf. Now move!" He took a step toward the door and Blanca charged. One second the wolf was standing in front of the door, the next he was lunging towards him. Seto brought his arm up instinctively but Blanca hadn't been aiming for his through. Instead he hit the millionaires' chest hard enough to knock almost all the air out of him, then jumped off his chest as he hit the ground. For a second Seto lay their staring up into grey mist. Although he wouldn't admit it, even to himself , he was scared. Up until now it had been easy to pretend this was all a crazy dream but this….you couldn't have the air knock out of you and feel pain in dreams could you?

Shaking his head slightly Seto rolled onto his stomach and stood up shakily, still struggling to get air into his laboring lungs. Blanca had returned to his position in front of door. Seto glared at the wolf and wished he had some sort of weapon with him. Blanca just kept staring at him, then charged again. Seto tried to dodge the wolfs initial assault but he wasn't fast enough. A quick nip on his wrist caused a cut that bleed sluggishly, and the canine managed to turn as he landed and launched himself back at Seto. Several more attacks latter Seto had several mores small wounds, and though they stung he knew they weren't serious.

_Damn dog! _ Seto thought to himself. He knew that wolfs jaws were powerful enough to crack bone, and that the white one in front of him had been holding back. That stung Seto's pride. He was not used to

being underestimatedEven though the wolf had several wounds from Seto's attacks they were nothing compared to the bleeding wounds the wolf had inflicted on him. For several seconds they paused both glaring at each other. Then suddenly the wolf shifted slightly as he prepared to attack and Seto realized that he was finally able to read the canines attack pattern. As Blanca launched his attack Seto shifted and lashed as Blanca was in midair, catching the wolf in mid-air. His kick launched Blanca away from him and the wolf hit he ground hard. Seto froze and sat in a crouch panting for several seconds.

When Blanca didn't get up Seto snorted and started to walk toward the door. He was almost there when he heard a voice behind him.

"Stop." Blanca growled as he struggled to his feet. The millionaire snorted.

"And just how are you going to stop me?" He sneered in the wolfs direction. "You can barely stand, _mutt."_ Instead of answering the wolf glared at him and barked two words. Immediately the ground under Seto's feet exploded, hurling him sideways.

Seto scrambled to his feet almost immediately, wincing as the pain of the initial explosion and subsequent impact rippled though him. He turned to glare at the wolf just as Blanca threw back his head and howled. It was different from anything Seto had ever heard before, it made the hair stand up on the back of his neck. He didn't just hear that howl, he felt it in his bones. It almost felt as if that howl was calling out to something. Then, in response to the call, soft lights appeared in the air around the wolf. The began to fall, like glowing snow flakes, on to Blanca's wounds. Ever time a light touched a wound there was a flash and the wound would vanish. Seto could do nothing but stand and stare as all of the wolf injuries vanished one by one.

"What in the world?" He stammered as Blanca turned golden gaze back on the him. For a brief second Seto was mad, both at himself and at Blanca. While a very small part of him was yammering that it was unfair, he hadn't known that Blanca could do that and the wolf was cheating, most of his mind was logically analyzing it and wonder why he hadn't assumed the wolf could do something like. Still….

_I am going to beat some sense into this mutt. I've faced wolves before, the only difference is that the ones I had to deal with walked on two legs instead of four_. _I know I can defeat him and I will! _As soon as that thought entered the Harmonixers mind a familiar wave of cold touched his consciousness. It promised him power, strength, everything he need to defeat this wolf, if only he would give into it. Seto nearly did…but then the memories of the mansion surfaced. Memories of scaled hands and power….but also ones of accusations and the shocked looked in his brothers eyes. Immediately Seto shoved the cold back, forcing back into the far corners of his mind. He ignored the fear that went with it and tried to pretend that he had not felt the cold at all. He was not harmonixer, not a monster like Blanca and everyone else seemed to think he was.

Seto internal struggled lasted less than as second. That was all Blanca need to throw back his head and howl one more. This howl was very different from the last howl, it was stronger, louder and some how very, very threatening. For a second nothing happened and Seto started to think that whatever Blanca had been trying to do had failed….until a red streak raced past the wolf, and head straight toward him. He tired to move out of the way, but when he dodged he red light followed him. Right before it connect with him, he was able to see a vague dog shape…then it hit and all other thoughts vanished from his mind.

He was cold, colder than the feeling he had gotten when he had transformed into that…..that thing. As if he had suddenly been plunged into ice water and would never be warm again. Accompanying that cold was an intense pain that tore through his body. He had never felt anything like it, the pain didn't come from anyone area. It was more like something had caused every nerve in his body to scream. The pain and cold lasted only a second or so but that second was an eternity. Just as the pain was fading another red light hit him, and then another and another after that. He was hit eight times, but after the first four he couldn't stand any longer, he felt his legs give way, and felt his vision start to blur and fade. Seto tried to hold on, tired to force himself back to consciousness but the last light hit him, one that if possible, hurt worse than the others. This time he wasn't able to resist the pain and felt darkness drag him into unconsciousness….

Only to jerk awake immediately. It was still dark and for half a second Seto was confused…until he realized that he was laying in his bed, in _his _room. _Just a dream. _He thought. _I let what that bastard Reaper and that woman said get to me. _Then the pain hit. It was not nearly as intense as the pain his dream, more of an ache, but like the pain it didn't come from any one area. It was as all his nerve's were sore. Alarm rippled through him the he squashed it. It was a dream that was all it had been dream. This was just his reaction to a extremely realistic dream. That was all it could be, all it _had _to be, right?

"It wasn't a dream." A voice said out of the darkness. Seto sat up right, muscles tense, reflexively preparing for another fight. "Relax. It's jut me." This time the millionaire realized that the voice sounded familiar. He glared at the large white shape at the foot of his bed.

"How did you get in here?" He snapped at Blanca. "And why in the hell are you on my bed?"

"I opened the door." the wolf said as he yawned. "It's harder to do without hands though. And I'm up here because I knew that the only way to convince you that of that I was telling to truth was to show it to you." Blanca stood up and jumped to the floor.

"And since the easiest place to do that would be in your graveyard, I had to figure how to get you there. The only option was to approach you while you were asleep. Any other time and your soul would have resisted me."

"My soul? Just what are you trying to do to me." Seto threw the covers off and stood up. A shock of pain went up and down his body, but he choose to ignore it.

"Trying to get it through your skull that you won't be able to deal with Reaper as you are now!"

"I said it before, it don't' need any help!" Seto took a step toward the wolf, then wince as his body sore body protested the movement. "I can deal with him on my own!" In his mind Seto wondered if this was just another dream…but it felt to realistic for that…but it hadn't to be one, didn't it?

"_No you can't!" _ Blanca roared back at him. "You couldn't even stand up to me." That caused Seto to stop. The wolf glared at him. "I was rougher on you than I should have been but seemed to the only way for you to realize you own weakness!"

"I don't need to hear this from a talking dog!" Seto yelled. "I've been taking care of both myself and Mokuba before you were probably even born you stupid mutt, and furthermore I don't' care what kind of stupid tricks you pull. If you don't shut up then I will make you."

"Like you tried to do before?" Blanca mocked. Seto snarled but the wolf shook his head before the young man could attack.

"Why didn't you transform when you attacked me? You would have stood a much better chance if you had." Seto paused the memory of ice and power flooding through him. He forced it to the back of his mind. He looked up and meet golden eyes that bored into his own.

"I told you, I'm not a Duel Monster. I can't fuse or transform or what ever it is you think I can do!"

"You already have Seto. I know it. That was why the graveyard is active right now. You're the one that woke it up."

"I told you to shut up! I'm not some sort of monster!"

"Who said you were?" Blanca asked then tilted his head quizzically. "Are you scared?"

"No way in hell!" Seto snarled. "I am not scared of anything, let alone something that can't possible be true!" Blanca sighed.

"I know Harmonixers are supposed to have strong wills but this is ridiculous!" Blanca muttered under his breath, the sighed.

"I can't force you into this so I won't event try." He told the millionaire.

"About time you realized that…!" Seto growled.

"But I hope you realized what's going on here." Blanca raised his golden eyes and caught Seto's red ones once again. "Reaper has taken in many lives in pursuit of his goals and he won't balk at adding Mokuba's to that number. I will protect him as best I can but in all truth, I can't stand up to Reaper on my own. Think about that Seto." The wolf turned and started to toward the door. Right before he exited he paused and looked back at the harmonixer.

"Oh and Seto" He said. "I was fighting during World War I." As he left the wolf called back. "Please listen to your elders this one time, Seto." Seto scowled then turned and climbed back in bed. For him the rest of the night would be a restless sleep filled with nightmares.

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I am really, really, really sorry for making everyone wait so long. I really have absolutely no excuses. I had this three quarters written by the time the family vacation I was on was over. Then I promptly forgot about it. Hehe.

I did want to have this up for Christmas but I got writers block on the scene between the masks and Blanca. This was originally suppose to be shorter but Seto insisted on arguing about everything, so it go a lot longer. The only scene that actually go shorter was the one were Blanca is 'adopted' by Mokuba. Originally Seto was going to make a bigger fuss about it but then I realized something: Even if Seto really isn't that fond of dogs (I see him as more of a cat person ) I doubt he would really care as long as the dog didn't get in his way. After all they can afford to have one and Mokuba given the responsibilities that Seto has given Mokuba before I doubt that would be an issue.

Next chapter will be up a lot faster, promise!

Please Read and Review.

--Plantress

P.S.: How in character is Seto? I've been trying to keep him character but I'm really not sure how well I'm doing. I haven't have any complaints but I want to know how I'm doing.


	5. Talks

I do not own Yu-gi-oh or Shadow Hearts. I don't own any of the characters except Cassandra either.

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**Shadow Dragon**

_Chapter Five: Talks_

It had been a little over three days since the incident with Blanca and Seto Kaiba was beginning to get annoyed with himself. He did not want to believe in magic and strange abilities, they had no place in his company or his world. But that dream…if it really was a dream. Although it seemed impossible Seto was unable to ignore the evidence that was before his eyes, or the nightmares that sometimes plagued his sleep. Part of him wanted to talk to Blanca about it, to see if what the wolf had said was real. Things that seemed so convincing in the dead of night had seemed less clear in the light of day. But he wolf hadn't said a thing since that night and aside from sticking closer to Mokuba, it's behavior pattern hadn't changed at all. It was annoying him and now he was even having trouble sleeping at night. That stupid dream kept replaying in his head. Although logically he knew it couldn't be real, he had bruises that were still fading. Dreams wouldn't leave bruises in the shape of teeth marks.

It worried him, more than he would admit too. Normally he didn't worry much about Mokuba's safety. Most of his enemies knew that kidnapping was risky, and those that would have been willing tot try it were wary because of what had happened to the other people who had already tried that tactic. All had failed. Now only a wackjob like Pegasus would dare to try it.

Then Mokuba had been kidnapped twice in a month, and the last had been by a man who had seemingly appeared out of nowhere. Seto had checked the security tapes from all of the Mansions cameras and found nothing. It was as if the man had just appeared there. But things like that couldn't they? Ye there was the fact that no locks had been broken and the security system was still running, with no evidence of tampering.

Seto drummed his fingers on his desk had growled. That girls comment keep running though his mind as well. A monster? People had called him that and worse since he had taken control of Kaiba Corp, so why did it bother him so much this time?

_Because you were actually a monster. _A tiny voice whispered in the back of his mind. He ignored it as he had before. Instead he tried to focus on other thing. What was frustrating for him was that he could find no information on this Reaper character. He knew who Tucker was now, a former arms-dealer who police had suspected of dealing with Gozoburo Kaiba, although nothing had been proved. It hadn't surprised Seto. His step-father had been a bastard and Seto knew he had been involved in almost as many illegitimate deals as legitimate ones. Still…..why had Tucker waited until now to surface. Most of the threats had come right after he Gozoburo's death, before they idiots had learned that he didn't take threats lightly.

Seto gave a mental shake and focused back on Reaper. The police would catch Tucker, they already had a solid lead on the guy and would arrest him so. Normally Seto was content to let the police catch whoever it was that attacked him but this time it was different. Reaper had pissed him off, and if Seto would ever admit it to himself, shaken the Harmonixer. He hated being helpless, hated being powerless. Seto had vowed to find that Reaper and beat the crap out of him. Particularly since he knew, like whatever it was that had happened with Pegasus, wasn't something he could take to the police.

But, he hated to admit, the only information he had heard about the guy had come from the lips of a talk dog he had seen in his dreams. If anyone had come to Seto with a story like that, the millionaire would have had them taken to a nice quite room somewhere, one with padded walls. Although he tired to ignore it, there was a part of him that was willing to believe in the dreams.

The millionaire wasn't sure which was a more frightening prospect to him: That he was slowly going insane (Something he considered almost impossible) or the thought that all of this could be real.

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After work Seto came home and had dinner, talking with Mokuba about his grades as they ate. Once he was done Seto headed up to his home office to continue his work. The first thing he saw when he walked in was Blanca, sitting in the middle of the floor. The dog looked up and meet his eyes. Something about the dogs eyes seem to say that he wasn't going to leave.

"How did you get in here?" He snapped at the mutt. The door had to be pulled open from the outside, and Seto knew he had locked the door when he had went down to dinner.

"I have a few tricks up my sleeves." Blanca answered, nearly causing Seto to jump. The millionaire managed to catch himself in time, but from the amused look in the wolf's eyes, he had seen it. Seto had almost managed to convince himself that the whole thing had been an incredibly lucid dream. Having evidence to the contrary in front was something he hadn't been expecting.

"Then what are you doing here?" He snapped at the canine, then made his way around to the chair behind his desk. Talking dogs aside, he had work to do.

"I came to see if you had made a decision yet." Was the calm reply. Seto froze.

"What decision?" He growled.

"What you are going to do about your powers and Reapers of course." Seto began to type.

"I already, told you, I'm not some kind of superhero. I'm not some transforming freak of Nature, and I can take care of Reaper on my own."

"Seto." Blanca said dangerously. The wolf trotter over, the reared up on his back paws, and put the front ones on Seto's desk. "You cannot continue to deny this. Reapers will come again and you will not be able to stop him if you don't accept this part of yourself."

"I don't' have another part of myself!" Seto snapped and slammed his hands down on the desk. "Whatever stupid dreams you stuck in my head last time won't work again. I'm not going to dance because a talking dog tells me too."

"Seto…? Who were you talking too?" Mokuba poked his head around the door and Seto froze. He felt a blush rising on his cheeks and tried to curse. He did not want to tell his brother that he had just been talking to his bet dog. It was embarrassing. Then Blanca deiced to take things into his own paws.

"At the very lest you should tell your brother about Reaper!" The wolf snapped. Mokuba jumped then stared.

"Mokuba, if your going to come in, do it and close the door." Seto ordered. If he was going insane, he would rather the staff didn't seem him talking to Blanca. It would be very bad for his reputation. Hesitantly Mokuba did as he was told.

"That is a good idea." Blanca observed. "I doubt you want to panic anyone else."

"You can talk." Mokuba said faintly, still watching Blanca.

"Yes I can." There was several moments of silence.

"Since when?" The younger Kaiba asked at last.

"Since long before I came here." The wolf's ears flattened against his skull. "I'm sorry for deceiving you, but I needed to talk to your brother. I doubt he would have listened if had started talking to him in the middle of the street." Mokuba smiled slightly.

"That's true. But how can you talk?" Now it was plain that his younger brother was curious. Seto was getting annoyed, he had forgotten you young Mokuba was. He actually believed that mutt.

"I'm not really a wolf." Was the reply and Seto glared at him. Blanca hadn't said _that_ last night. "Or at least I'm not anymore. Now I'm the guardian spirit for the people of the Inugami village. Since you and your brother were born there that means I have to protect you as well."

"Why don't you go back to your village then?" The millionaire finally snapped. "We don't need your protection."

"You need it more than anyone else does!" Blanca snarled back. "None of them are the ones Reaper is after."

"Reaper?" Mokuba interrupted. "You know who he is?"

"Yes." Blanca began to explain to the boy and Seto growled.

"Mokuba, don't listen to him." He ordered. But Mokuba was to absorbed in the story, he didn't notice his brother. A few minuets later Mokuba looked up wide eyed.

"I didn't want Mokuba involved in this!"

"He already is!" Blanca snapped. "Reaper doesn't care who he has to hurt to get his way. He wants a Harmonixer and he will to anything to get one."

"I already told you, I'm not a Harmonixer!"

"Seto?" Mokuba's voice broke through his anger and Seto turned to look at his brother. "I saw you transform back there." Seto took a deep breath.

"Even if I am a Harmonixer, I'm not going to do something just because a talking dog tells me too!" Mokuba opened his mouth to say something, but Blanca shook his head. The wolf walked over and nudged the younger Kaiba toward the door.

" Lets go. There's something I want to ask you about the battle." Mokuba glanced back at his brother worriedly, and Blanca sighed.

"Don't worry about him. Eventually Reaper will make a move, and then your brother will be forced to face the truth, whether he wants to or not"

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Blanca had taken to following Mokuba almost every where he went. At first the younger Kaiba had been some what annoyed with the wolf but he had realized that with Blanca by his side there was little to no chance that anything like what had happened with Pegasus and Tucker would occur again. Blanca had assured him that even if he wasn't strong enough to deal with a threat, he would be able to hold it off long enough for him to escape. That had worried Mokuba but his guardian had grinned at his expression.

"You don't have to worried about me." Blanca had assured him. "I be hurt and this body may be destroyed but it will take much more to actually kill me."

"What do you mean?" The younger Kaiba asked out of curiosity. His guardian spirit had yawned.

"I'm a guardian spirit Mokuba, technically I 'died' a long time ago the only reason I stuck around was because I wanted to protect Inugami village and, by extension, the people that come from there."

"You mean Harmonixers like my brother?" Blanca nodded.

"Yes, among others. But because Inugami village is so small and people who are destined for greater things didn't stay there, I choose a form that would let me go with them."

"What do you mean?"

"I'm a spirit Mokuba. If I had stayed in my spiritual form, the one I was first given, I would have been bond to the forest around Inugami and wouldn't have been able to leave. So I sacrificed a portion of my power to give me this physical form. It's not so much a body as a shell that allows me to move about the world unhindered."

"Why did you say you had to sacrifice part of your power?" Mokuba asked. "Was it really that hard to create one."

"Yes." Blanca admitted. "But not because it's a difficult process but because you have make sure you keep the Balance."

"Balance?"

"The Balance between this world and the others. Beings aren't suppose to cross between realms and disasters befall all those that attempt to bridge the gap between them. That's why my powers were sealed, so that I couldn't move between them. Right now I am more of a creature of this world than of anything else. That limits me in some ways, but also lets me affect this world in a more direct matter than I otherwise would be able too." At the confused look on his charges face, the wolf had sighed. "Never mind about he details. Just know that it won't be that easy to get rid of me."

Lately, Mokuba had taken to exploring the less popular areas of the city. He knew the area around the Kaiba Corp tower like that back of his hand because before he hadn't dared leave it. Even though he was young Mokuba had realized that the criminals who might balk at snatching him from under is brothers nose , probably wouldn't stop if he was too far away from his brothers influence.

Now he had Blanca with him and he felt a good deal safer. Now he could go where he wanted without worrying Seto. Mokuba knew that his brother didn't really trust Blanca yet, but he figured that if Blanca could keep him safe on these little excursions then the wolf would be able to earn his brothers trust.

They had been exploring one a street on the other side of town, one that Mokuba hadn't seen anything interesting on. The younger Kaiba had been about to return to the car that Seto was waiting for them, when he caught sight of someone familiar. Mokuba had a very good memory. Living with is brother, he had learned to memorize faces and names so that he could, in his own way, help Seto. That was why he had knew he had seen the girl he could see coming up the street before. He knew he had heard her name before, since something kept tell him he was suppose to know it, but he could place her. She wasn't one of his brothers business contacts, and she didn't work at Kaiba Corp. It wasn't until she was climbing the steps to a temple further up the steer that it finally hit him. Mokuba stiffened involuntarily, causing Blanca to turn and look at him in concern.

"What's the matter?" The wolf asked. Mokuba pointed.

"She was the one who helped Seto find me." Was all the younger Kaiba said. He didn't like her. Something in her voice when she had called Seto a monster….she had hated him then.

"That' was Cassandra." Blanca stared in the direction she had gone interesting. He was silent for a minuet. Mokuba looked down at him.

"Blanca?"

"Are you absolutely sure that Reaper said she had a Crest?" The spirit wolf turned and pinned Mokuba with this golden eyes.

"Yeah, I think so. He said something about magic too."

"Did he say she had anything else beside a Crest? Anything at all?" Blanca pressed.

"No, that was it. He said something about magic but that was it." The wolf sighed and dropped his head.

"Why do you want to know?"

"Because" Blanca glanced back at the temple that Cassandra had been seen entering. "If he's talking about a Solomon's Crest then I might be able to figure out strong she is. There are only a certain number of Crests in the world. Each one has a few spells attached to it. Only someone who has enough power can use the stronger Solomon Crest's." The wolf looked at Mokuba. "Are you sure you can't remember what spell she used?"

"I'm sure." Blanca sighed, then stood and shook himself.

"Lets go back." The wolf said. "I want to talk to your brother." That said, Blanca walked back to the waiting care, Mokuba behind him.

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Inside the temple Cassandra watched her broom as it swept over the stones that lead up to the temple. It had been weeks since the incident and her Grandfather hadn't said anything to her. Normally she wouldn't have worried because he rarely said anything unless it was required but for some reason it worried her now. She had told him everything that had happened in the old mansion, and he had then dismissed her. Although she had been coming to help out at the temple, they hadn't actually talked about the incident.

Cassandra realized that her grandfather was probably mad at her for disobeying his orders. Uncle Akira certainly had been. He had lectured her for an hour after he had heard her report. Most of it had consisted of horrors stories about what had happened to people who tired to deal with spirits that were far more powerful then they were and failed. He had also told her repeatedly that she was very lucky to have gotten off so lightly. Cassandra had agreed, because as far as she was concerned, the human monster she had been fighting with was a much bigger threat than the spirit had been.

It rankled the young woman that she owed her life to him…it. Although she had been getting tired, she couldn't shake the feeling that she should have been able to deal with that monster on her own. Yet, that human-monster had stepped in, and the snake woman had fallen. And deep in her heart Cassandra knew that no matter hard she tried, she would never have been able to take down an enemy with the easy the lizard man had. She didn't like to admit that a monster was better than her at something she had been training.

The priestess swung her broom harder than she had meant to and sent leaves and dust spiraling into the air. Coughing she forced her self to calm down.

"Loosing your temper is not a good thing Cassy." Her grandfather's voice came from behind her and the young woman whirled around to face him.

"Grandfather." She said. He was one of the few who called her by her nickname. For a while there was silence then Cassandra cleared her throat. "I'm sorry I disobeyed you Grandfather." The old man looked surprised.

"You helped save a life Cassandra." He said. "Why would I be mad?"

"Then why haven't you said anything about it?" She asked. "And Uncle Akira wouldn't tell me who that was."

"Akira doesn't know who that was." Cassandra was startled.

"Didn't know..?" Her grandfather nodded.

"Yes. I had never heard of this man either. I have been trying to find out more information about him, but I have not been able to find anything."

"Just him, Grandfather?" Cassandra said. "What about the other guy?"

"Other?" Her Grandfather frowned. "What other one?"

"The other guy I told you about!" The young woman exploded. "The one that turned into a lizard! Why aren't you trying to find out about him too?"

"Because he is not a priority. He is not as dangerous as Reaper is." The old man said calmly.

"What!? How can you say that! He has to be using Malice, the same as Reaper was!" Her Grandfather held up his hand and Cassandra stopped.

"Seto Kaiba was not using Malice." There was such assurance in her Grandfather's tone that Cassandra stopped.

"How do you know?" She asked calmer this time. Her Grandfather lowered his hand.

"Malice is the energy pulled from negative and violent human emotions. I taught you that much Cassandra." The young woman nodded. "Those who use that power are twisted, in their mind and hearts corrupted by it. Creatures like Reaper, ones who use it will one day fall to it. If, or rather when, that happens, the Malice goes out of control. It consumes them and twists them into monsters like the one you fought in that house." Cassandra had recognized her Grandfather's 'teaching' tone and was careful to pay attention to what he was saying. "If that young man had been a Malice user he would have attacked you or his brother after he had transformed. Also, he would not have been able to transform back into a human." Her Grandfather smiled at her. "Besides, did you sense any Malice when he transformed?"

"No." The young woman admitted. "I didn't." Then she looked up and meet her Grandfather eyes.  
"But if he wasn't a Malice user, what is he?"

"That" Her Grandfather sighed. "Is something that I would like to find out."

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A/N: Chapter Five is up! This is shorter than the others, mostly because his is basically a transitional chapter. Next one will have more action, including the reasons behind Reapers actions.


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